"Don’t allow this broken culture to send you a message that you’re a bad person because you’re a man, because you like to tell a joke, because you like to have a beer with your friends or because you’re competitive."

Said JD Vance, last year, quoted today in "Bench Presses, Pull Ups … Kid Rock? The White House Had a Very Manly Week/President Trump’s top cabinet officials are pumping iron in public" (NYT).

The Vance quote appears near the end of the article, right after: "Mr. Trump’s latest masculinity proclamations sum up this administration’s hard-line approach to maleness, where the most powerful men in the country can just relax and be men who appreciate other men — in a strictly manly way, of course."

Right after the Vance quote, we get: "All of this hints at a powerful political current that politicians like Mr. Vance and Mr. Trump instinctively know how to channel."

The article ends with 2 quotes from law professor Joan C. Williams: "One of the only arrows in [Trump's] quiver is being the man" and "Picking wars all around the world, that’s what’s really going on."

It's not fair to judge the NYT article — by Katie Rogers — without watching this for context:

BawitMAHA https://t.co/npFlS2NxTo

— HHS (@HHSGov) February 17, 2026

ADDED: "Let’s Talk About RFK Jr.’s Workout Pants/Our health secretary is a jeans guy, and he knows it" (The Atlantic)(gift link).

Kid Rock describes his dinner with Bill Maher and Donald Trump (and Dana White).

Kid Rock reveals how the White House dinner with President Trump, Bill Maher, and Dana White went last night. pic.twitter.com/jvY6tfFqC4

— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) April 1, 2025

"It could not have been better. Everyone was so surprised, so pleasant.... We talked about things we had in common — ending wokeness, securing the border.... It blew my mind. I was very proud.""

Kid says he was "shocked" that Maher — for all his big contributions to Democratic candidates — had never been to the White House. And Trump was "so gracious — he took us up to the private residence, we saw the Gettysburg Address in the Lincoln Bedroom."

What did Kid Rock wear?

😂 pic.twitter.com/gBcA9SLl1a

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 1, 2025

Donald Trump tells us everything about his dinner with Bill Maher.

A post on Truth Social:

I got a call from a very good guy, and friend of mine, Kid Rock, asking me whether or not it would be possible for me to meet, in the White House, with Bill Maher, a man who has been unjustifiably critical of anything, or anyone, TRUMP. I really didn’t like the idea much, and don’t like it much now, but thought it would be interesting. The problem is, no matter how much he likes your Favorite President, ME, he will publicly proclaim what a terrible guy I am, etc., very much like the Democrats at my recent Address to the Joint Session of Congress, where I stated, correctly, that no matter what I said or did, they wouldn’t stand, they wouldn’t applaud, they wouldn’t smile or laugh and, certainly, they wouldn’t be in any way “nice.” Who knows, though, maybe I’ll be proven wrong? In any event, I’m doing a favor for a friend. I look forward to meeting with Bill Maher, Kid Rock and, I believe, even the Legendary Dana White will be present. It might be fun or, it might not, but you will be the first to know!

Is that a way to treat a dinner guest? Does Maher get to bring 2 charismatic chatty confederates to balance the table?

ADDED: Kid Rock was on Bill Maher's show a few weeks ago. 

"It started decades ago, in my opinion. It started decades ago with timeouts and last-place participation trophies."

"And sorry to put it so harsh, but it seems to me like we lost a good portion of a few generations of men who've just turned into complete fucking pussies."

Said Kid Rock, getting the last word in a discussion — with Bill Maher, Tim Ryan, and Pamela Paul — that started out with a criticism of the Boy Scouts changing its name to Scouting America.

The NYT finds joy in MAGAville.

I'm reading, "Kid Rock Threw the Party. MAGA Faithful Brought the Joy, Rage and Smirnoff Ice. A music festival headlined by the pro-Trump musician offered a snapshot of a maturing American subculture, with a mash-up of hedonism, rebellion and beer-guzzling pursuit of happiness" (NYT).

Sample text: "The shows felt like Trump rallies without the former president, unburdened by policy talk, speeches from lesser-known G.O.P. players, and the buzz-kill tendencies of Mr. Trump himself, who tends to noodle at the lectern like a jam-band soloist. What remained was a snapshot of a maturing American subculture, with unwritten conventions rivaling those of Deadheads or Swifties, and a dizzying mash-up of hedonism and piety, angry rebellion and beer-guzzling pursuit of happiness."

Credit to the writer of this prose. It's Richard Fausset.

Have Trump people been compared to Deadheads before? On November 2, 2020, Variety had "'Wave That Flag': Meet the Deadheads Who Stump for Trump" ("I’m not a big fan of the president, but at the end of the day, Trump is about individual freedom and so was the Dead").

Meanwhile, 9 days ago, Rolling Stone came out with "You’ve Heard of White Dudes for Kamala. Now Come the Deadheads/Fans of one of the most enduring of classic-rock bands — along with Mandy Patinkin — will rally on Zoom in support of the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate."

Kid Rock explains his relationship to Bud Light.

Here's the whole episode. If you want to hear him talk about Trump, start at 1:15:11:

"So now the Bud-lash is a whole thing, as is the backlash to the Bud-lash."

Writes Emily Stewart (at Vox), voxsplaining the fuss over Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light.

Radio personality Howard Stern said he’s “dumbfounded” at all the hullabaloo, wondering on air, with regard to Kid Rock and [Travis] Tritt, “Why do you care so much?” ...

Anheuser-Busch, which is getting a ton of earned media out of this, appears to largely be riding the wave.... 

"Master Persuader rising. If he runs, he wins. And it won't be luck."

Says Scott Adams.

Talking about Kid Rock:



Rock's rant reminded me of the discussion we had 3 days about "the psychology behind people actually enjoying it when others curse."

More from Adams about Rock in this long "periscope." At one point, Adams goes beyond predicting that Rock will win the Senate seat to imagining him winning the presidency.

Something I've been thinking lately is that we are on a trajectory of weirdness, and it should not seem abnormal that Trump won the presidency, but a natural outgrowth of Obama's having won. The abnormal is normal and we want more of it. Kid Rock — with the swearing, the tough get-a-job right-wingery,  the stage show, the guitar chords and video background — enters at a point where it makes sense to predict we are going.

"I live in a double-wide trailer. It's not like I require a lot... It comes, delivered to the door, in 2 weeks..."

"Very easy to clean. Simplicity at its finest. Sure, you don't have some of the finer luxury things like big thick shag carpet... but that stuff's never really meant a lot to me."

Kid Rock explains to Dan Rather why he likes living in a double-wide trailer (even though he has money and will spend it on land and a private plane):



This gets the "tiny house" tag, of course. And I wouldn't make a new tag for carpeting, but I already have one, so I'm interested to publish this post so I can click on the tag and find out whatever made me blog about carpeting intensely enough that I — with my resistance to the creation of new tags — made a tag for it.

Brilliant positioning by Kid Rock.

Dinner time at my house. What do you think Schumer is spoon-feeding Stabenow tonight? pic.twitter.com/gomKgqBV2l

— Kid Rock (@KidRock) July 21, 2017

I love everything about the photograph, including the salt and pepper shakers that are luring haters to say things like "Nice salt and pepper shakers, grandma."

Stroh's = Detroit, Michigan.

In August 2016, Pabst partnered with a brewery in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood called Brew Detroit to begin brewing batches of Stroh's Bohemian-Style Pilsner, a beer derived from an original 1850's Stroh's recipe. The first batch was shipped to area bars, restaurants, and liquor stores on August 22, with special events all across metropolitan Detroit on the 26th.

Here's more about Corktown. It's named after County Cork in Ireland, from which many immigrants came during the great potato famine in the 1840s. I didn't know the name Corktown, but I have been there, because it's where Tiger Stadium is was, and I've been there a couple times (back in the summer of 1976, when Mark "the Bird" Fidrych was the rage).

Here's a Google maps link to let you take a walk around Corktown in Street View.

I took a stroll on a Brooklyn Street...



... down past the glove factory...



"On Hand Since 1912."

ADDED: I'll bet Dan Rather regrets creating this showpiece:

Who's afraid of Kid Rock?

Apparently, people are finding this very powerful:



I like that his issue is clear speech. That's one of my long-term issues (and one of my favorite tags). There's something poignant in the thought that all we really want is to understand what the hell is going on.

Last 6 words of the previous sentence brought to you by Mr. Clear Speech, Donald Trump...

Scott Adams laughs hysterically at the idea the Democrats are intimidated by Kid Rock.

And before he gets to that, there's some excellent discussion of why — given his opinion that everyone smart would have taken the meeting Don Jr. took with the Russian lawyer — some people who seem to be smart claim they would not have taken the meeting. Adams does a great job with the comic delay of the answer. And I love the part where he demonstrates what it's like for the kind of person who takes a lot of meetings to process the introductions at a typical meeting:

Scott Adams drinks coffee and teaches you how to take a meeting with a Russian lawyer https://t.co/3IUt9mp9il

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) July 16, 2017

The Kiss — a 10-item list.

1. After writing the last post — focusing on 2 magazine covers depicting a kiss — made me want to write a blog devoted to the kiss. It would be easy to keep a Google alert on the word "kiss" and blog every day on whatever miscellany relating to kissing happened to come up. I considered starting a new blog, but kiss.blogspot.com, kissblog.blogspot.com, and thekissblog.blogspot.com were all taken, so this post is a rough draft of what that blog would have been.

2. A Google news search on "kiss" brings up something I should already have blogged: Joe Biden, swearing in a Senator (Chris Coons) and wrangling various family members into good photo-op positions, got a little too cozy with a modest/nervous little girl and guessed wrong when he decided that a little cheek nuzzling would loosen her up. Reactions varied from "Holy Hell Would Be Unleashed On 'Handsy' Joe Biden If He Were Conservative" to "Awesome Little Girl Rejects Biden's Kiss At Senate Swearing-In." Hey, Joe, no means no... Mr. Violence Against Women Act.

3. Remember your first kiss? Kid Rock does — or is able to strain his voice Jack-and-Diane style in various assertions to that effect in this new video "First Kiss":



"And now these days when I drive through a small town/I turn my stereo up and roll my windows down/’Cause it reminds me of my first kiss/And those days that I always miss/Tom Petty on the radio." Tom Petty gets a big shout-out. Seems like John Cougar Mellencamp deserves a nod (or a peck on the cheek).

4. Kiss cam variations... including the deepest deep kiss:



5. "KISS frontman Gene Simmons... is as ubiquitous as ever with a reality-television show and a recent book on his business philosophy called 'Me Inc'" and a new restaurant in Oviedo called Rock and Brews. Quote: "You are alive, and you are supposed to keep moving... I'm 65, and, boy, do I look great."

6. "Tell me about the Root kiss. Was that a big gift for the fans?... Did you think it was a 'Goodbye forever' kiss, or a 'Shut up, I’ll be back' kiss?" Apparently, there's a TV show called "Person of Interest" and there was a kiss that made a big impression — "a much-anticipated kiss between the show’s electrifying women." What was so big about it? It can't just be that 2 women kissed on TV or even that 2 electrifying women kissed on TV. In the first nonplatonic 2-woman kiss the women were electrifying: Sharon Stone Mariel Hemingway and Rosanne Barr. "Television critic Frank Rich of The New York Times called 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' 'a small step forward for the stirring of homosexuals into the American melting pot' and a 'sophisticated half-hour [that] turned homophobia on its ear.'" The year was 1994.

7. The previous post — the post that got me started on this list — discussed a Charlie Hebdo cover showing 2 men kissing which I assumed was an intentional allusion to the famous New Yorker cover showing a Jewish man and a black woman kissing, and Meade said: "You know what else you should have included?" I said: "Brancusi's 'The Kiss'?"



No, he was thinking of the famous photograph of a sailor kissing a nurse: "V-J Day in Times Square" by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Scanning my Google image search results, I saw Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss" and said: "As ubiquitous as Gene Simmons." No, I said: "How many dorm rooms have you seen this in?" And "There's also that Rodin."

8. For a less famous, less over-liked artwork called the kiss, consider Tino Sehgal's "The Kiss": "On the [Guggenheim Museum's] ground floor, a man and woman entwine in a changing, slow-motion amorous embrace.... As choreography it will hold no surprises for anyone familiar with contemporary dance. Taken as living sculpture, it has amusing moments: every so often, the performers strike erotic poses derived from Courbet, Rodin, Brancusi and Jeff Koons." I'd already thought of Rodin and Brancusi, but let's check out the Courbet and the Koons.

9. Hey, Koons (#8) and Coons (#2). It's like the stars are in alignment. Is there a constellation called The Kiss? No, but The Arctic Monkeys sang: "And her lips are like the galaxy's edge/And her kiss the color of a constellation falling into place."

10. "Kiss" is a very old word in English. The OED — giving the first meaning as "A touch or pressure given with the lips... in token of affection, greeting, or reverence; a salute or caress given with the lips" — has the oldest appearance of the word circa 1000:

Ælfric Homilies II. 32   Ic hine to minum cosse arærde.

I don't read English well enough to understand that, but the language becomes more recognizable by the 1380s, when a translated Bible had: "Kisse he me with the cos of his mowth." And here's a great poet: "Ah why refuse the blameless bliss? Can danger lurk within a kiss?"

Celebrities mentioned in footnote 5 of Roberts's opinion in McCutcheon: Jay-Z, Beyonce, Kid Rock, Robert Duvall, "Rocket Man."

Reason why they are mentioned: These individuals, though they can't hand a huge sum of money to a political candidate, have the power to channel huge sums of money to a candidate by appearing at a fundraiser.

(Here's the text of the opinion.)