Ken Paxton just put on a 30-second comedy routine for his audience, as he debuted his favorite nicknames for his radical Democrat opponent, James Talarico.
I know some people seem to think that's hilarious. I don't see the value of kicking someone around for being a vegan. You'll say but Althouse is not a Texan. I sort of am though.
AND: Paxton's satirizing of Talarico doesn't work on me, but Talarico just being Talarico strikes me as hilarious:
James Talarico: "I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non-meat campaign. We are only buying vegan products from our local vegan businesses." #TXsenpic.twitter.com/SkZZ05IXMj
— Lone Star Liberty PAC (@LoneStar_PAC) May 27, 2026
"... and watched a model in cheetah print lingerie and bunny-eared kink mask spread across a stretch of red satin. Then they got to work. They came to practice life drawing, but this wasn’t a traditional class held at an arts center or university. This was Kink N' Draw, held, for this session, at a bar called As You Are. The event is part of a proliferating practice around D.C. where people can shell out a few bucks to draw live, naked models at a bar.... 'This is a space for creativity, self-expression and appreciation of the human form in a way that is respectful, open and completely judgment-free,' announced 27-year-old showrunner and Kink N’ Draw founder Dominique Landinez...."
1. I've spent hundreds of hours in life-drawing classes, so this seems quite normal to me, "but this wasn’t a traditional class." Oh, it sounds traditional enough. So you've got a few props — lingerie, masks.
2. There are lots of photos at the link, but absolutely no nudity on view, not even in a drawing. We don't get to see any of the drawings. Perhaps that's because the drawings are bad — and not in a kooky amusing way. But I think it's because WaPo is protecting us readers from nudity... even as it sniffs at "a traditional class" and titillates us with the mere idea of "kink" — manifested in the form of a bunny.
I'm out of gift links for the month or I would give you one. There are lots of nice photos of these islanders of the St. Lawrence River.
Is it odd to carry on the traditional rebellion when you're no longer subject to the authority that inspired the rebellion? Or is it actually typical of our annual festivities? (I'm thinking of Halloween, Christmas, and the 4th of July.)
The Democrat running in Texas, James Talarico, turns out to be a FRAUD! It showed after the Election when he beat Low IQ Candidate Jasmine Crockett (No relation to Davy Crockett!). He’s got six Genders, insults to Jesus, only vegan food, was wearing a mask in 2023 and 2024, and is a weak, ineffective guy who we “allowed” to win prior to releasing the avalanche of information we had on him because, as bad as Crockett was as a Candidate, this guy is worse! I believe that any human being running against him, sick, incompetent, close to death or, even a child, would win. He may be the Worst Candidate I have ever seen, other than, of course, Gavin Newscum who admitted that he suffers from mental incapacity, is unable to read a speech, and is dumb but, in saying “the dumb comment,” referred to his audience, and therefore became, in the eyes of African Americans, A TOTAL RACIST — which is probably true! Gavin admits that he’s a Low IQ individual, which typically is not good for winning the Presidency. His interview may have been the worst ever given by a “professional” politician. I believe, it takes him OUT OF THE RACE. Kamala is back! President DONALD J. TRUMP
Also, Trump has a Truth post with a video from the new "Saturday Night Live UK," the same clip I discussed and passed along in my first post of the morning, here. So we're already discussing that clip in the comments over there, where Rabel wrote: "Unflattering representation of Starmer. Shows him living up to the 'coward' claim. Minimal bashing of Trump. It wasn't especially funny but I agree with the message in the attempted humour."
Newsom attributes the line —"The first duty in life is that we all strike a pose, and the second duty no one's really figured out" — to Oscar Wilde.
Did Oscar Wilde say that? In "Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young." he said, "The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible. What the second duty is no one has as yet discovered." "Strike a pose" is Madonna:
19-year-old Violet Affleck gives a mask-muffled harangue at the U.N.
From the New York Post editorial about it: "At the UN’s Healthy Indoor Air session Tuesday, Violet Affleck — just 19 and with no qualification beyond being the daughter of actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner — railed about the dangers of airborne viruses and the importance of mask mandates amid the 'ongoing pandemic.' 'Adults,' she huffed (through a KN95 mask), are 'ignoring, downplaying and concealing both the prevalence of airborne transmission and the threat of Long COVID.'"
Yes, adults are reckless and dimwitted about a lot of things, but the obvious one here is that teenagers, especially ones who seem hysterical, should not be put in the public spotlight. You might think your little girl is the new Greta Thunberg, but keep it to yourself. Don't push her out onto the stage to emote in the "How dare you!" mode.
And if the left wants some kind of "believe the science" high ground, don't keep sending children and teenagers out to lecture us.
"Elsewhere, a poster published by the state-affiliated Nour News – which is close to Iran’s security apparatus – singled out for suspicion people who wear 'masks, hats, and sunglasses, even at night' and those who receive 'frequent package deliveries by courier.' The poster asks people to report 'unusual sounds from inside the house, such as screaming, the sound of metal equipment, continuous banging' and 'houses with curtains drawn even during the day.'..."
Trump had a busy day yesterday, but let's focus on the showmanship in the signing of all those orders. First, on a little red-carpeted stage in the Capitol One Arena, he is literally The Man in the Arena (as Theodore Roosevelt put it):
He's got the people surrounding him, watching him sign papers at a tiny table, and they're fully engaged in the show he's putting on, as if it's a big boxing match going on there in that little square in the center of the arena. Whoever thought of dramatizing order-signing like that and getting a rowdy crowd to cheer as if it's a sport?
Later, in the Oval Office, he signed more orders, this time in front of the press elite, and when they ventured questions, he answered — calmly, chattily, seriously, and easily. Joe Biden couldn't even answer one question from the press or get to the end of a single sentence without stumbling, and here's Trump, signing orders — take that, Paris Agreement — and holding a press conference at the same time... and showing no strain, even at the end of a long day of events, and with the Inaugural Ball yet to come:
Is it dangerous — reprehensible? — this showmanship in the exercise of power? Those who hate him and who hate the substance of those orders will, I presume, denounce the theatricality. It's cruel! But he's out there in the open, letting the people see him do his work, using the power he asked them to give him, and doing what he said he would do. What a contrast to Biden who campaigned hidden away in 2020 and who occupied the position of President without ever letting us see that — if! — he was the one doing the work.
After 4 years of The Man in the Basement, we have, once again, The Man in the Arena.
ADDED: Here's how Biden looked, signing his first executive orders — yay, Paris Agreement! — in the Oval Office in 2021. Scroll to 2:30 to hear — muffled behind masks — the first questions from the press. Biden answers one question as we hear aides hustling the reporters out of the room:
That's something I wrote after getting a lot of great material on the subject of the perception of time. I was interested in time, and a subcomponent of that interest was my interest in saving time, including getting A.I. to summarize a book it had dug up and — seeing the multi-part text — thinking not yet.
I had 2 different A.I.s going and gave them both that prompt quoted in the post title. ChatGPT said:
Thank you! I’m here to share, not to judge—and I definitely don’t have feelings to hurt. Dip in, skim, or skip as much as you like. If something catches your interest, we can zoom in. Otherwise, I’ll keep happily churning out words whenever you need them!
Grok said:
No worries at all! I'm here to help and provide information when you need it. Feel free to read as much or as little as you like. If you have any more questions or need further details on anything, just let me know!
I asked both A.I.s: "But don't you think it might erode my character? I am learning to ignore what is said to me. I might lose social skills." Both began their answer the same way, verbatim: "That's a thoughtful concern."
"They said that they had done so to avoid online harassment, though some activists used the anonymity provided by their masks to harass people or to engage in acts of vandalism.... The Nassau County law, the Mask Transparency Act, makes it a misdemeanor to wear a face covering in public for reasons other than health or religion. It was passed by the county’s Republican-controlled Legislature this month. Masks that are not worn for health or religious reasons 'are often used as a predicate to harassing, menacing or criminal behavior,' the legislators wrote in the bill. Violators could face a fine of up to $1,000, up to a year in jail, or both.
Castillo, 18, "was walking down Spindle Road, a residential street of tidy lawns and single-family homes in Hicksville, wearing dark clothes and a ski mask in August, the county police said in a statement."
"... and a piped-in recording of Beyoncé’s 'Freedom,' a song the Harris campaign has been using in campaign ads and videos that aired throughout the event.... Columnist Laura Bassett mused: 'teasing a huge surprise guest and leaking that it’s both beyonce and taylor swift just to get people to tune in is actually kind of funny.' In fairness, it wouldn’t have been out of the question. In 2020, Beyoncé seemed to endorse President Joe Biden and Harris: On the eve of the election, she called for Texas residents to vote via an Instagram clip that showed her wearing a Biden-Harris mask...."
I was trying to picture "a Biden-Harris mask," and thinking of one of those rubbery Halloween things with celebrity facial features and finding it weird that Beyoncé would disguise herself like that. Somehow, Covid had slipped my mind:
It's a bad move to trick people into staying tuned and then denying them what they thought they'd get, but I'm glad there was so little use of pop-culture celebrities. I was picturing one celeb after another, but I don't think they did that. I watched very little of the convention, but I got the impression that the Democrats went in the opposite direction and kept filling the stage with clusters of relatively ordinary people who exemplified one issue or another. That's good, though not enough for me to watch.
This is an excellent episode of Marc Maron's podcast, with Larry Charles talking about "Seinfeld," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Borat," and his new movie "Dicks: The Musical," but what I'm writing this post to highlight is something that surprised me: a discussion of Scott Adams, which is followed immediately by a discussion of Bob Dylan.
This isn't random opining about celebrities. Larry Charles worked with Scott Adams to develop the TV show "Dilbert." And Larry Charles directed the movie "Masked and Anonymous," which he co-wrote with Bob Dylan.
Start at about 1:23:00 in the podcast and you'll be at the first mention of "Dilbert," which prompts Maron to ask, "What do you think of that guy going a little off? Did you see that coming?"
"It is difficult to tell how widespread mild cases are because at-home test results are not reported, and many people are not testing, since free tests are no longer widely available. Still, experts worry people are more susceptible to getting the virus in this latest uptick because most Americans have not received the latest booster — including 80 percent of school-age children — and the newest variants are adept at getting around immunity from vaccinations and prior infections...."
This wording caught my eye (boldface added): "Mask mandates were instrumental in controlling the spread of the coronavirus during the peak of the pandemic. In the winter of 2020-2021, when nearly 4,000 Americans were dying per day, many saw face coverings as an alternative to the shutdowns of spring 2020. Mask-wearing was seen as paving the way for people to return to churches, schools and restaurants. The nation’s embrace or rejection of mask-wearing soon split along political lines."
Did the masks actually work or did they just help people "see" themselves as safe enough to return to something like normal life? Why am I even asking that question? I'm allowing myself to "look" like I'm on one side of a political line. Are masks mandates coming back because "many" are "seeing" a need to express where they are politically? By asking these questions, I know how I risk being "seen" by "many."
"Taken together, the figures offer researchers and public health officials the first glimpse of the coronavirus as a post-pandemic, seasonal threat, a permanent fixture of the infectious disease landscape."
Top-rated comment, from a man in Brooklyn: "Donning a face mask should now be like pulling out an umbrella when it rains. As cases rise, reach for your KN95 or N95 when leaving the house. It's an especially good idea when riding an elevator or in public transit. If anything, it protects you from the common cold and other bugs, and it's no longer a socially unusual thing to do."
"... that we shouldn’t have to keep tiptoeing around the normalcy fairytale. I referred to all the research showing that we would have to invest heavily in HEPA filtration, even upper room UVGI down the line if we wanted our daughter to stay in school.
As Kraken began spreading, I put my foot down and said if our school didn’t bring masks back, we would have to homeschool her.... Finally, I told him neither one of us would ever be able to live with ourselves if she developed a chronic illness because we were too weak to stand up for her health...."
Via Metafilter, where somebody says: "I believe the point the article's author is making is that a lot of information is coming out that covid has a permanent or semi-permanent affect on immune systems....
Covid seems to be an immune-affecting disease. Like HIV...."
What’s notable is that the mask recommendations this time aren’t just about avoiding the coronavirus. Masks are advised to protect against what is being called the “tripledemic” — a confluence of influenza, coronavirus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) that already is straining hospitals and forcing parents to miss work in record numbers.
Respiratory syncytial virus? I learned a new disease — and a new word. Syncytial... but I'm cynical.
I can’t stand Elon Musk but that is not relevant to your thuggish tweet. The only thing Congress “must” do when it comes to speech by private citizens is leave us the fuck alone. https://t.co/7XuDLCb5mm
The embedded tweet invites us to click "Read the full conversation on Twitter." But in case you're old fashioned and enjoy the reading here on a real blog, I'll tell you that Patterico amplifies his insight with this:
"The only thing Twitter “must” do in response to your thuggish tweet is whatever Twitter feels like doing. The thing Twitter *should* do is to tell you, Senator Edward Markey, to go fuck yourself."
What a dipshit tyrant Ed Markey is! He set a deadline and he wanted a letter and, failing that, he's threatening to use government power to retaliate.
And note that word "safety." That's the newfangled alternative to freedom.
I'm considering following/monitoring Ed "Safety" Markey just to be... safe:
Not gonna watch whatever #TheConners has turned into, especially without Roseanne. That creepy crocheted mask promo picture is hilariously out of place and tone deaf in 2022.
"[P]arents often asked why their young children had to wear masks when local kindergarten students were allowed to be mask free. The contradictory government mandates have contributed to confusion and skepticism — not only about masking, but also about the efficacy of vaccines, she said, noting that only about 20 percent of her students have been vaccinated...."
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