Originally published at: Trump Slinks Away From His Promise of a Texas Senate Endorsement - TPM – Talking Points Memo
Trump Unable to Save Republicans from Self-Imposed Damage in Texas Senate Runoff President Donald Trump crows over the power of his endorsement — dangles it, sword of Damocles-like, over Republican candidates who perform adulation for his approval. But its weakness is apparent in his hesitant deployment. His favorite endorsees are those certain to win. In…
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Pump, dump, and run, guys!
Feb. 21
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Q: “What is the difference between Donald J. Trump and the Hindenburg?”
A: “One is a big bag of flaming Nazi gas. The other is an airship.”
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ETA: A cloud 
for every ray of sunshine 
dang it.
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It won’t be long before all the GOP candidates pray Trump endorses their opponents.
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I’ve been have fun with The Hive all morning, so rather than watch everything shut me out again I’m going to share here. I read this article the article on Kent and Owens talking to the Anti Vatican II crowd. Once again, I’m always astounded how God always seems have exactly the same prejudices as the person he speaks too.
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I’ve always wondered how, in his hearts of hearts, Trumpie could actually spurn a fellow inveterate criminal and fraudster and all-around complete cheat like old Ken P… Can’t help but still wonder how much of a role that affinity has played in his apparent ambivalence about the Texas contest…
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I know, it’s almost like Paxton is a mini-me for Trump. It’s probably what keeps him from the endorsement though. Felon knows that Paxton will sell him out for a little bigger slice of the grift. It’s what he’d do.
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Very true. In his case, people with whom you have deep affinities are absolutely the last ones to ever trust with anything…I assume he realizes this, dimly, at least. Of course, some days I kind of think he most likely doesn’t realize anything.
Anne Applebaum today notes this about Trump, and also notes that until very recently, it’s seemed that almost nobody in the world had figured it out:
-Donald Trump does not think strategically. Nor does he think historically, geographically, or even rationally. He does not connect actions he takes on one day to events that occur weeks later. He does not think about how his behavior in one place will change the behavior of other people in other places.
-He does not consider the wider implications of his decisions. He does not take responsibility when these decisions go wrong. Instead, he acts on whim and impulse, and when he changes his mind—when he feels new whims and new impulses—he simply lies about whatever he said or did before.
-For the past 14 months, few foreign leaders have been able to acknowledge that someone without any strategy can actually be president of the United States. Surely, the foreign-policy analysts murmured, Trump thinks beyond the current moment. Surely, foreign statesmen whispered, he adheres to some ideology, some pattern, some plan. Words were thrown around—isolationism , imperialism —in an attempt to place Trump’s actions into a historical context. Solemn articles were written about the supposed significance of Greenland, for example, as if Trump’s interest in the Arctic island were not entirely derived from the fact that it looks very large on a Mercator projection. -
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‘Vertical morality’ might describe why MAGA Christians seem so unchristian
or many Americans, the gap between Christian teachings and MAGA politics is baffling. How can people profess faith in Jesus ― who preached love, mercy and care for the oppressed ― while supporting policies that punish immigrants, demonize LGBTQ people and glorify cruelty?
The key to understanding this apparent contradiction might lie in something called “vertical morality.”+
“Vertical morality teaches that authority, power and a moral code of right and wrong, or acceptable and unacceptable, come from ‘above’ ― an external superior who designates rules, systems and tenets that must be obeyed by those beneath,” said Tia Levings, a former Christian fundamentalist and author of “A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy.”
“Vertical morality in Christianity is the idea that our ethics and behaviors have a duty to please God alone. We get our morals from God and we must obey him, furthering the will of God no matter the cost,” said April Ajoy, author of “Star-Spangled Jesus: Leaving Christian Nationalism and Finding A True Faith.”
“Evangelicals are taught that all morality comes from God and therefore true goodness can only be spread by obeying God, even if it harms people around us,”
In the current era, conservative Christian nationalists see anyone on their political team as good and on God’s side, while those who oppose them as evil and satanic
What’s interesting is that Jesus taught a compassionate, flexible, grace-filled view of what it means to live a life loving God,” Levings noted. “But today’s conservative Christianity is less influenced by Jesus and more by the Old Testament and Paul.”
She pointed to theonomy, the belief that Old Testament laws should be applied to modern society, as an influence on Christian nationalist politics.
Summarizing the role of vertical morality in the Old Testament, Klinger Cain highlighted the story of Abraham, who was commended for his willingness to obey God’s command to sacrifice his son Isaac, despite the act’s inherent immorality.
“The problem with MAGA Christians is that they promote policies that often go against the teachings of Jesus,” Ajoy said. “They justify it by promoting a view of God that is vengeful. They demonize all immigrants as criminals, all queer people as predators, all leftists as violent and all Democrats as satanic ― with no evidence to back these claims. And because they believe in a literal hell and a God-ordained calling to make the nation Christian, they justify cruelty in the name of ‘tough love.’”
This religious viewpoint desensitizes people, so inhumane immigrant detention feels fine and deserved. Klinger Cain added that, for people with this perspective, the only way to escape the fate of hell is not through good actions but simply by being on the right God-ordained MAGA team.
“Vertical morality has caused white conservative, MAGA-aligned Christianity to completely abandon the core of Christ’s teachings because their focus is on self-interest and perceived moral purity,” Hale said. “To them, they are Christians and haven’t abandoned the faith at all, but their framework measures righteousness in a way that can excuse behaviors that the general public knows and sees aren’t Christlike at all.”
This system also demonizes empathy. Some conservative authors have even written books describing empathy as sinful or “toxic.”
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Holy smokes. I was browsing through the Guardian and found this article:
Oddly, my first thought was not 1887, but 2025. @darrtown was asking about blurring out Trump photos so you don’t have to see the actual visage(?). This would be a great image to use instead, not Felon and oh so symbolic of the MAGA god.
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App that I would expect to be roaring to worldwide best-seller status right about now (per Anne Applebaum), Open Letters, Substack): ‘In Copenhagen a few weeks ago, I was shown a Danish app that tells users which products are American, so that they know not to buy them. At the time it was the most popular app in the country.’
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Loser knows that smell of loserdom is coming from inside the house.
His brand is toxic.
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Trump crowed about how two endorsed candidates he backed won their primaries even though they were running unopposed.
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This Trump baby cartoon, my all-time favorite Trump editorial cartoon, just becomes more apt all the time. And tragically so, unfortunately:
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It certainly describes the behavior, I’m curious how this plays out in a Nuremberg defense. In the U.S. it will wind up walking a tightrope, at least today. You say that this is what God demands, and your transgressions are divinely sanctioned. It’s pretty slick really.
What happens when God doesn’t actually speak for himself, but relies on surrogates? Are those surrogates the actual “voice of God.” If so, then you’ve essentially created your own imperial cult. To bad you put Caligula at the top.
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Just once I would like to see JUST ONE of the big MAGAt politicians and dirty tricksters tied to a chair and someone film their confessions; as an interrogator preps a few ‘extraction’ options and lays out some of the equipment.
“Yes, yes!!!..I have an extensive collection of kiddie porn”
“Yes, yes!!!..I ruthlessly exploit the MAGAt and R base because they are complete morons!”
“Yes, yes!!!..I gave my wife 3 different STDs…”
“Yes, yes!!!..there are untold millions of ‘donations’ in my private accounts”
“Yes, yes!!!..I have committed 33 separate legal and ethical violations in order to help protect pedophiles at the highest levels of the R power structure”
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I’m not sure, “The delusion is strong in this one.”
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