He’ll never show up either, apparently

Mysteriously missing congressman wins primary after Trump endorsement

Republican Congressman Tom Kean Jr, who has not been seen in Washington or his New Jersey district for months, secured his party’s nomination for re-election on Tuesday, after receiving a recent endorsement from President Donald Trump.
“Tom Kean has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election,” Trump wrote on social media, adding, “HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”
Kean ran unopposed in the Republican primary and did not need to campaign for votes. But US media report he also has been absent from Congress, missing more than 100 votes.
In November’s midterm elections, Kean will face Democrat Rebecca Bennett, a former US Navy helicopter pilot, who won her party’s primary on Tuesday.
Kean was last seen on 5 March. His staff said in April that he was dealing with a medical issue. But Kean’s continued absence has become a national curiosity in the US.

This is such a strange story. Kean does at least appear to be still alive, but that seems to be the most we can say about him. He’s in recovery, but from what? I know people like to keep that sort of thing private and it’s their right to do so, but I also think when you’re in Kean’s position, i.e.  part of the US Congress, you kind of also have the duty to let your constituents know if and when you’ve got some sort of health issue in case it affects your ability to serve them. Just because Trump and his minions refuse to acknowledge there’s something significantly wrong with him isn’t justification for Kean doing the same… and the amount of time he’s been AWOL suggests something is indeed very wrong. Apparently the district he represents tends to swing a lot, and I suspect it might swing away from him in November if he doesn’t show up for his damn job soon…

Talafreakout continues

Travis County Republicans make new rule: no more pro-Talarico posts allowed

The Travis County Republicans Facebook group is in disarray as it grapples with a problem: too many members are posting positive things about state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Texas’ contested U.S. Senate seat.
Finally, an admin in the Austin-area group had enough and posted a message to the group on Thursday.
The Travis County Republicans Facebook group is in disarray as it grapples with a problem: too many members are posting positive things about state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Texas’ contested U.S. Senate seat.
Finally, an admin in the Austin-area group had enough and posted a message to the group on Thursday. […]
However, Hogue also raised the possibility that the group had been infiltrated by Democrats masquerading as Republicans to sway them with Talarico’s Christian values as opposed to … whatever Paxton’s values are.

Yeah, unless this group’s members are unusually free-thinking and find Paxton too awful even for a Republican, I’m damned if I can understand why they’re posting pro-Talarico comments at all in a Republican group if they’re not secretly Democrat operatives. I find it quite mirthsome either way, of course.

Flop of July

The other funniest story from American politics has been the collapse of the proposed 250th birthday of the US concert. This was amusing enough when they just announced the artists that would be performing, most of whom were last big hitters around 1990—including the surviving half of Milli Vanilli who were… not exactly renowned as live performers (or studio performers, of course)—but it became genuinely comedic when pretty much all the advertised “stars” abruptly withdrew from the show; apparently no one told any of them the Freedom 250 concert was actually an official celebration endorsed by the Shite House, which I find hard to believer but that’s what most of them seem to be saying.

Mushroom Cock’s solution to this slight problem: who needs music when yo’ve got… him?

“I understand Artists are getting ‘the yips’ having to do with their performance on Wednesday, so I am thinking about bringing the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar, the man who loves our Country more than anyone else, and the man who some say is the Greatest President in History (THE GOAT!), DONALD J TRUMP, to take the place of these highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists,’ and give a major speech, rallying the Country forward like I have done ever since being President!” Trump wrote.
The president appeared to be referring to the concert series announced last Wednesday, which lost seven of its nine featured musical acts within 48 hours, but since none of the shows was scheduled for next Wednesday, his meaning was difficult to parse.
A spokesperson for Freedom 250, the organization Trump created to run celebrations of the nation’s founding, contacted the Guardian later to say that the Wednesday in question is one next month, 24 June, when the president “will personally kick off this historic celebration” at a previously unscheduled “opening ceremony” for a 16-day fair on the National Mall. The fair was to have started a day later, on 25 June, with a concert by Martina McBride. The country star announced on Thursday that she would not perform, because, although she had been “assured this was a nonpartisan event”, that “turned out to be misleading”.
“I don’t want so-called ‘Artists’ that get paid far too much money, who aren’t happy,” the president added. “I only want to be surrounded by Happy People, Smart People, Successful People, and People that know how to WIN. So, by copy of this TRUTH, I am ordering my Representatives to look at the feasibility of doing an AMERICA IS BACK Rally on Wednesday, Washington, DC, same time, same location. Only Great Patriots invited — It will be a Wild and Beautiful Celebration of America!”
Trump’s promise that his rally will be “wild” echoed a tweet he issued after his 2020 election loss to urge his supporters to protest in Washington DC on 6 January 2021: “Be there! Will be wild!”

I wonder if this means we can look forward ro a repeat of that day. The worst thing is, Krasnov just monologuing for as long as he can stay awake would, for a lot of MAGAts, actually be a much bigger draw than any of the musical acts would be. Oh well. The dude from Milli Vanilli is apparently still keen on performing, which is… something, I suppose. Not sure what.

Meanwhile, in the Unhinged States…

This has been the funniest thing to come out of American politics this week:

Yes, someone at the Democrats ACTUALLY GREW A FUCKING SPINE FOR ONCE and snapped back at undeniable ugly fuck Stephen Miller in words they would understand. Apparently this constitutes “violent political rhetoric” in the eyes of Katie Miller, the ugly fuck’s wife, who also doxxed the poster of the above reply as Paulina Mangubat. Pleasingly, Paulina is unrepentant in the face of it all:

“All we did was say what everyone else is thinking, which is, ‘Shut up—that’s not what people care about right now,’” Mangubat says. She added that there’s no reason to regret using the “ugly” moniker to describe Miller.
“What he’s doing is ugly—siccing federal agents on civilians, applauding when families are separated. It is ugly behavior,” Mangubat said. “The reason this happened is because Stephen Miller, who is one of the most powerful men in the country, decided that it would be a good use of his time to go on Twitter and hurl an untrue and transphobic attack against James Talarico.”
It’s worth stressing that the roots of this saga lie in the depiction of Talarico as transgender—and that this was intended as a vicious insult. Indeed, Stephen Miller went on a tear after this exchange, going on Fox News and ripping Talarico as soft and effeminate in every way he could. Miller derided Talarico as “transitioning to female,” mocking his testosterone count and claiming Talarico’s blood is made of “soy milk.”

The Republicans do seem to be quite alarmed about this Talarico fellow, cos his opponent, Ken Paxton, did well in the Texas primary the other day but seems to be widely unpopular as a person; apparently his own staff reported him for corruption to the FBI when he was the Texas A-G, and amidst other things he’s faced more recent criticism over cutting a deal with a lawyer facing a life sentence on child abuse charges and getting that reduced to SIXTY DAYS, of which he only served half of that. Paxton is evident scum and the Republicans are worried that Talarico could actually become the first Democrat senator in Texas since the 80s, hence the peculiar and desperate attempts to paint him as transgender (or at least gay) and, worst of all, VEGAN! Clearly that’s the worst possible thing he could be…

Honestly, the stupidest thing the Democrats did was reigning in Tim Walz on the “weird” rhetoric during the 2024 campaign. And, to be sure, I kind of understand the thinking, it’s all about being bigger than the Republicans, moral high ground, adults in the room, etc… I understand it but it gets them nowhere cos the Republicans don’t care about being the adults in the room, they’re satisfied with being fundamentally juvenile because it works for them. I know it doesn’t look good for the Dems to descend to their level, and it only makes the whole spectacle of American politics even less edifying, but they may as well. Cos you can see by the Republican reaction to Stephen Miller being called what he is that it bothers them. The Dems need to bother them more often. Call them all ugly fucks. Call them all weird. Keep describing them as abnormal. Just ATTACK them. The Dems need more Paulinas.

Misspent youth

I never really had a misspent youth cos I never actually had much inclination to misspend it (nor indeed much money with which I could do so), and part of me now regrets that. So when I spotted this image on Tumblr, I had to compare and contrast myself…

* Greasy, stringy hair… yeah, somewhat guilty. Dyed and backcombed, though. Too lazy to look after my hair properly, so also too lazy to do anything like that.
* Smokes, drinks… the latter, once upon a time (stroke more or less ended that). I only ever smoked once or twice. As I may have said before, not taking up smoking was the only good thing I’ve ever done for my health.
* Slouches… yeah, I’m exceedingly bad for that.
* Black eye…. no? I never got into physical fights or anything like that.
* Uses bad language… well, I speak English, and frankly that’s as bad as language gets.
* Too much makeup… no. Even in my peak goth era I was too lazy for anything of that sort.
* Always chews gum… never.
* Rumpled clothing… um, yeah, guilty, pretty much. Leaving the house tends to be an adventure in finding the t-shirt with the fewest creases. None of the female fashion choices really apply here, which may or may not be a disappointment.
* Carries a switchblade… no. Probably a good thing.
* Dirty jeans… yeah, more guilty than I like to admit. I don’t do untidy cuffs, though, cos I don’t do cuffs of any sort. Haven’t needed to roll up my jeans since I was little.
* Old shoes… yeah, definitely guilty. The current pair have been with me for what, 12 or 13 years? They are past their best, much like their owner.
* Stealing… I actually have shoplifted, so… yeah. Never stole a car, though. Never learned to drive one of the fucking things, so it would’ve been a bit silly.

So I think I would’ve been a somewhat substandard delinquent in 1965 when Al M. Bradley drew this thing. Can’t find anything about the latter, so I don’t know who he produced it for nor why… the only other source I can find for it refers vaguely to an unnamed “delinquency scare book”, so if nothing else I’m guessing that he meant this seriouslu. Don’t know about you, but Al’s “common delinquent” seems relatively mild; he/she might pack a knife, but their chief offence seems to be dressing badly and engaging in theft, they’re not doing drugs or killing people or anything like that. Maybe they had to graduate to the next level of delinquency to do that. Maybe he needed boots like hers.

A reasonable response by a reasonable man

As I have possibly said more than once before, I’m kind of sick of those people who get the vapours about Trump doing something he legally can’t do, as if they think he thinks he is constrained in any way by little things like laws. That said, when a court finally deigns to do something about it, it’s always pleasant to see, and though the renaming of the Kennedy Centre was a minor thing compared to, you know, international incidents in Iran and Venezuela, there was something singularly irritating about him doing that, it just seemed particularly egregious for some reason. For all Kennedy’s faults, he didm’t and doesn’t deserve to be associated with Mushroom Cock, who seems to have taken the judge’s decision… personally. I know he’s prone to verbal diarrhoea on Truth Social but he really went off on this one, as far as I can tell that’s a single post (just divided in four, click to enlarge, etc).  On the plus side, maybe performers will actually want to play there again if his name’s not on it…