Not only that, but I bet there are a bunch of people here who really are US citizens, and a bunch more who are either here legally, or were until the President canceled their visas just for this stunt.
No, the death itself and the plans for the funeral may have been sudden, but the Pope had been unwell for a while and I'm sure every government had a contingency plan to drop everything and go to the funeral.
And Putin is ex-KGB (as if you could ever really be a "former" spy). If Putin really is advising Trump, you can be sure that he had a script all teed up for Trump, and Trump got his talking points before the trip.
But the Vatican, at this particular event, is perhaps the only place in the world where Zelenskyy and Trump could have had this talk, without anyone else present.
I find it interesting that after one meeting with Zelenskyy in a neutral place, without any handlers present, that Trump has done such a sudden about face.
Maybe it's just a coincidence. Maybe it's just that Trump's tiny mind can only hold one thought at a time, so it fixates on the last thing that was said to him. But it's also possible that he is being actively manipulated by foreign actors, and Zelenskyy just managed to pierce their control over Trump by staging this very private talk, in a public place, where he could be guaranteed that his message could be delivered directly.
.... How did you guess that? Now I'll have to change the combinations on all my luggage ...
(That joke isn't relevant anymore, though, now that you can't use locks on your luggage that the government doesn't have the key for. That was too absurd even for Mel Brooks.)
They may not all consider themselves to be part of the Trump cult, but they all believe that the Conservative Cinematic Universe is reality, and right now, it is all slobbering Trump's toadstool. So is there any real difference between a true Cultist, and someone who simply believes all the same lies?
At this point, everyone should understand that every single thing a public AI "writes" needs to be vetted by a human, particularly in the legal field. Lawyers who don't understand this need to no longer be lawyers.
(On the other hand, I bet all the good law firms are maintaining their own private AI, where they feed it the relevant case histories directly, and specifically instruct it to provide citations to published works and not make shit up on its own. Then they validate it all, anyway, because their professional reputation depends on it).
WTF ?? 40+ % agree with him? How can this country be like that?
These 40% of people simply don't see any criticism of their Dear Leader, they self-select their media sources and those sources tell an entirely different story. I call it the Conservative Cinematic Universe....
The fact that his story is so rare says a lot about the misguided system that is the monarchy.
It only happened because the prior King was unable to produce an heir through the normal methods. (Refreshing my memory from Bernadotte's Wikipedia entry, it was kind of tragic; two of the King's children died young, a third adopted child died early also, and apparently this King wasn't willing to trade in his Queen for a younger model....)
But the fundamental issue with hereditary Monarchy is that it makes the assumption that if a great King unites a people under his iron fists, his direct descendants will be great too. (And the firstborn, to boot).
So it will be interesting to observe the dynamic going in Rome in the next few weeks. Aside from the religious implications, the Vatican is it's own country, with an Absolute Monarch who is elected by the nobles every time it needs a new one. But since the Church's nobles are celibate (at least officially, winks at camera), they cannot rely on heredity at all so they are all appointed directly by the monarch. Coupled with an age limit on voting, it means that the last pope has personally installed a majority of the Cardinals who will name his successor. They will elect a man who they will agree to be totally subservient to once elected....
Sure, but the critical thing is that whenever they reverse course, it is only temporary. They will back off just enough for the current court cases to get dismissed, then try again with different people. It is vitally important that they keep meeting the same resistance, no matter who is targeted. Which means these people need to have legal sponsors who can mount a defense regardless of whether the targets have the means to fund it themselves.
The Administration thinks that by simply strategically backing down, they can avoid accountability for breaking the law in the first place. Then, when they start back up again, all the legal stuff stars over from scratch. They are in control of when to disengage, so the opposition needs to be instant.
Not only that, but I bet there are a bunch of people here who really are US citizens, and a bunch more who are either here legally, or were until the President canceled their visas just for this stunt.