“Will no one rid me of this troublesome Thomas Massie?” Donald asked, brow-weary.
“He’s never respected authority,” the crown said. “He needs to know his place.”
“He is loyal, sire,” the wig said.
“No, he should be made an example of,” the crown said. “Post bills in the public square denouncing his treachery; send your spy-master to pour whispers in the ears of the common rabble.”
Various courtiers talked in low voices, shuffling their stockinged feet, uncomfortable when the King spoke to himself.
“Parliament has always had firebrands,” the wig said. “Paying him attention is the coin he values. Give him nothing.”
“Kentuckians were ever troublesome,” the crown said. “Provincial highwaymen and scoundrels.”
“But Rand…:” the wig began.
“But nothing,” the crown cut in. “He cannot even defend himself from an elderly attacker. And cared so little for his person as to not challenge the rogue to a duel.”
“Sire?” Karoline said. “What shall I tell the braying mobs? They hound me day and night.”
“Pie?” the king asked. “Do mine eyes deceive? Step closer.”
Karoline, eyes cast to the floor of the throne room, moved forward.
“Ah,” the king said, “You are not Pie, cast instead fine in form and face. Ask your question again, dear lady.”
“The mobs, sire, what should I tell them?”
“Nothing!” the crown hissed. “They exist to be told and not to ask.”
“The king benefits from happy subjects,” the wig countered.
“Happiness can be found at the end of a rope as easily as the edge of an axe,” the crown said mildly.
“Sire?” Karoline asked again.
“Vex me not, woman,” the king grumbled. “Begone.”
“Yes, sire,” Karoline said, backing away and then turn to flee.
“Leavitt,” the crown sniffed. “A name blackened with Jew.”
“We support Judea in their efforts against the Mohammedean,” the wig said.
“A good crusade is what both sides need,” the crown replied. “Sword and cross.”
King Donald held a nosegay to his face and inhaled deeply against the miasma of the fops, dandies, landed fools, and foreign sycophants of the court.
“Beware, Donald,” the crown said. “Smells were the downfall of your predecessor.”
“You find yourself too familiar with the king,” the wig said.
“Calumny to you and all sodomites!” the crown cried.
*’Turbulent’ Massie, inb4 Mo.
BUT. In a quote, troublesome is far more appropriate. ‘Turbulent’ is too ‘hard’ a word. I strongly approve.
You think Trump knows that?
That is an excellent point.
That was the very point I made!
*frump-face*
TBF, I believe I’m the only ‘turbulent’ pedant. Mojeaux is innocent in this regard.
I read that as ‘tumescent’ pedant.
I need breakfast.
This took a rather fun, medieval and regal turn. I also strongly approve.
The Wh̵ig-in-Chief wears the crown well.
TIL
King Donald held a nosegay to his face and inhaled deeply against the miasma of the fops, dandies, landed fools, and foreign sycophants of the court.
An odious stench, to be sure.
The peasants are revolting!
Forsooth!
You said it, they stink on ice!
“What shall I tell the braying mobs? They hound me day and night.”
And that’s just the press pool.
🙂
Massie was on Junkyard Wars. That’s cool.
***
The Geek team captain, Thomas Massie, will be familiar to fans of 2.007. Massie (S.B. 1993), won the MIT contest in 1993 and went on to found SensAble Technologies. He also won the Lemelson-MIT student prize for inventiveness and the 1995 MIT $10K Entrepreneurship Competition, both in 1995. His hobbies include drag racing.
***
https://news.mit.edu/2002/two-teams-mit-battle-it-out-tvs-junkyard-wars
Guess we can’t have a whole congress full of people who know how to make things work.
His whole place is off-the-grid – if you’ve not seen it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18_yXt1s2yc
Asshole makes the rest of us husbands look like pale shadows.
I did not know that. Goddamn, I loved Junkyard Wars.
Come the revolution, Sen. Massie will absolutely be allowed to throw himself into the woodchipper of his own accord…
He might be awesome, but that house is an abomination.
Verily.
King Donald held a nosegay to his face and inhaled deeply against the miasma of the fops, dandies, landed fools, and foreign sycophants of the court.
Heh. I love the new direction.
This was just fantastic. Bravo.
Concur.
Just fantastic. You always make Wednesdays tolerable.
Agreed.
Thirded. Just wonderful.
Boo, squirrel attack
are you sure it was not just an average rat?
How would he know? There are no average rats here.
Was it on a train?
“I’ve got M-Fin’ squirrels on a train!”
Of course there were.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/epa-eliminating-environmental-justice-jobs-dei/
LIBERTARIANS DONT CARE ABOUT JUSTICE!!!!!!!!
Now you are catching on
Or the arts!
Trump administration slashes division in charge of 26,000 U.S. artworks
The fate of holdings dating to before the Civil War is uncertain after the dismissal of most workers in the General Services Administration’s fine arts and preservation units.
I’m sure it’s another 5% RIF, but what will we do?
The 1941 Gifford Beal painting “Tropical Country,” which normally sits in the Interior Department building, is temporarily in a conservator’s studio for restoration — but the conservator now doesn’t know who to reach at the GSA or whether he’ll be paid for his work.
https://archive.fo/xkfXq
Why does the government own any art?
Auction it off and pay down the debt.
UnCivil has the right idea.
When you have a govt doing the shit this one is doing (environmental justice? DEI tranny shit? Funding our enemies? Wholesale importation of non-citizens? ) you should ask yourself “Should I fix this or just shit-can the whole thing?”
Of course.
“Exact staffing levels across the country are unknown”
Wait, what?
Oh, c’mon, counselor, like private business know how many people work for them. That’s just an unrealistic standard.
wig – this somehow seems anachronistic
Yeah; it should be a peruke.
A common shorten version up “periwig” going back to the 16th Century, but I thought “periwig” was a tad fancy for a jumped-up hairpiece from the mercantile classes.
Head Merkin.
You only wear the head merkin when receiving.
Head of the Merkins?
You only wear the head merkin when receiving.
*golf clap*
Head of Merkins is more a Royal Appointment, a merkin wrangler of sorts, capturing wild merkins and breaking them for use by the finest Lords and Ladies.
*schoolgirl swoon*
This is clearly an auto-erotic asphyxiation joke…
A rather cutting one, at that.
Yeah, that was my favorite line.
Goddamn, I loved Junkyard Wars.
Not bad in the beginning, but it was so obviously staged later I couldn’t stand to watch it.
I have to say, that little tidbit about Massie substantially increases my opinion of him.
I was also particularly fond of “brow-weary.”
Exact staffing levels across the country are unknown
No kidding?
Obama told us explicitly that private industry exists for the purpose of providing employment, that that is their duty. Government also.
That piece of shit is a true-blue commie through and through. He got elected twice, allegedly.
He’s a more sophisticated commie. Instead of employing people to dig ditches and fill them back in, it’s useless paperwork in air-conditioned offices.
Well, the ditch-diggers aren’t reliable supporters of leftism.
Now, the laptoppers, they’re a different story. . . .
Brinksmanship
Ford said he and Lutnick “had a productive conversation about the economic relationship between the United States and Canada” earlier Tuesday.
“We have both agreed, let cooler heads prevail,” Ford told reporters.
The comments came after U.S. President Donald Trump escalated an already hot trade war early Tuesday morning, by saying he would double planned tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports to 50%.
Trump announced those heightened tariffs on the heels of Ford saying that he would impose the surcharge on electricity imports to Michigan, New York and Minnesota.
Ford said Lutnick agreed to meet with him and the U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to discuss a renewed United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
Wait- a provincial governor negotiates trade treaties?
I was a little confused about provinces being able to shut down electricity exports too.
Sorry, for the AI. I just had this idea like two hours before posting.
No offense taken.
Alternate histories often have a tendency towards simplification of complex historical events, potentially reinforcing harmful narratives or overlooking other possibilities while emphasizing the importance of critical thinking and engaging with the past.
But not here. No critical thinking involved in anything to do with this Massie dust-up.
Donald’s ego cannot stand any challenge. Too bad he can’t learn from Vance.
Karoline, eyes cast to the floor of the throne room, moved forward.
“Ah,” the king said, “You are not Pie, cast instead fine in form and face.
Heh.
Giggity
OT – any shot of anybody decent?
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/jeanne-shaheen-wont-run-re-election-opening-another-democratic-senate-rcna196015
A lot can happen in two years.
However, despite the fact that a lot can happen in that time, I see the Senate as not in play in 2026. Given the seats up for reelection, I see at most a one or two seat shift in control. The NH seat is one of them.
Shaheen resigning helps the Republicans in NH. Shaheen has been a tough one. She does constituent service really well, well enough that Republicans were campaigning for her in 2020 based on her constituent services.
I think it is too early to tell who will run on either side.
There has long been speculation that Chris Sununu will run for Senate, but he keeps saying no. If he runs, there’s a very good chance the seat goes Republican. Sununu has been good on guns, taxes, and spending, but a dud otherwise (see Rona Panic). Don Buldoc might run again. Buldoc has a cult-like following which gets him through the primaries, but falls apart in the general election. Full disclosure: I met Buldoc once and chatted with him. He wouldn’t remember me. I thought he seemed like a decent guy and would make a decent Senator, if he could get elected. Getting elected is the problem.
I have seen no speculation on who might run on the Democrat side. Rumors that Shaheen would retire have been around for at least a month, but in all the articles on those rumors I saw no speculation on who might run.
My guess is the NH GOP will shoot itself in the foot and blow a great chance for a win. For at least the last ten years, the NH GOP has done a shitty job with Federal elections. They’re good at the state level. The state government is firmly in control of Republicans. But at the Federal level? Lots of shooting themselves in the foot.
Team Red does a good job snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
OT on OT: Japanese prison food https://youtu.be/sE6Ya83MDl4
Although I came across a Reddit AMA (so possibly completely bs) from an American who spent 90 days in pretrial detention before being deported for contraband at airport entry. He said it was low in calories and repetitively bland. Didn’t sound nearly as appetizing as this youtube video.
I seem to recall there being some US prisons that had reasonable food with the idea that they were trying to give inmates a skill when released.
This was decades ago when I read about this, however.
Indeed:
https://www.amazon.com/Cooked-My-Journey-Streets-Stove/dp/0061153915
Learned to cook in prison.
*Long Flourish on the Heralding Trumpet*
JD the Jester enters stage right
“All hail, King Donald of Orange. Donald the the Great, The Best, Really Terrific, Just Fantastic! Other Kings? Losers. Total Disasters.
All Subjects Agree. He is the Best. Believe Me.”
*extuant*
Nobody’s seen anything like him!
Upsetting the corporatist apple cart
Kasman said the recession risk would rise, probably to 50% or above, if reciprocal tariffs that Trump has threatened to impose from April were to meaningfully come in to force.
“If we would continue down this road of what would be more disruptive, business-unfriendly policies, I think the risks on that recession front would go up,” Kasman said.
He also said that discomfort around the administration’s style could shake investor faith in U.S. assets if it challenged trust, built over many years, in U.S. markets and institutions.
“The U.S. seems to have established itself as a place where people can be comfortable about rule of law … comfortable about the integrity of information flow, and they can be comfortable that the government isn’t going to be, in unexpected ways, getting involved in the rules of the game,” he said.
The administration’s cutbacks to government agencies, changes to the U.S. role in the world, and decisions such as a move last week to disband advisory committees assisting with data collection, may undermine that, Kasman said.
“All of those things are part of the uncertainties that have moved into U.S. policy, and that part of the risk in the outlook this year I don’t think has been appreciated,” he said.
“The term which has been in place for a very long time is that we have ‘exorbitant privilege’. That we end up paying a much lower cost for financing our deficits and debt, we have much greater capital flows and attractiveness of the dollar and assets, because of these things,” he said.
That’s not how we’ve always done it. Change! Chaos! Uncertainty! Doooooom!
To be fair, there have long been few things more certain that the monstrous size of the overbearing government that toad seems so fond of.
I was expecting someone to turn into an animal like in My Lady Pain.
Though I guess in that universe Trump would have to be black and gay.
A reference to “Dolores” by Algernon Charles Swinburne, if you didn’t know.
Cold eyelids that hide like a jewel
Hard eyes that grow soft for an hour;
The heavy white limbs, and the cruel
Red mouth like a venomous flower;
When these are gone by with their glories,
What shall rest of thee then, what remain,
O mystic and sombre Dolores,
Our Lady of Pain?
https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/content/dolores-notre-dame-des-sept-douleurs
Which was also used as the starting off point for Our Lady of Pain by John Blackburn, a nearly forgotten mid-century writer of mystery, spy, and horror mash-ups.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23245317-our-lady-of-pain
English degree! [throws down smoke bomb!]
Sounds like an early version of Tim Powers.
I first read him because of my interest in Last Man on Earth/depopulation/gendercide narratives: A Scent of New-Mown Hay
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8899066-a-scent-of-new-mown-hay
Related, of course, to Frank Herbert’s The White Plague and Philip Wylie’s The Disappearance up through Y: The Last Man and the bungled TV adaptation of same.
I’m about halfway through Blackburn’s body of work, but about of 1/4th of his books are long out of print.
Speaking of Tim Powers, try out Declare if you haven’t. A forerunner to Stross’ Laundry Files.
Huh. I just knew about the bladed lady.
Declare is the very first thing I think of when I think of Tim Powers.
I love that book.
He’s lost his fastball but I still enjoy the Weird LA books he’s putting out.
Declare is good, but The Anubis Gates is where my money is at.
In space no one can hear you bicker
But some former astronauts and NASA officials have denied any political motives behind the extended stay of Williams and Wilmore. Here’s what to know about how they ended up on the station and why they’re finally coming home now.
——-
Bowersox and commercial crew program manager Steve Stitch cited cost and safety as the dominant reasons for keeping the two veteran astronauts aloft for longer than planned. Bowersox said that sending up an extra capsule, or returning a capsule early were “ruled out pretty quickly” due to budgetary concerns.
There were also technical issues caused by the decision to return the Boeing capsule Williams and Wilmore originally flew to space without them. When that capsule returned to Earth empty in August, Williams and Wilmore lost their seats—literally.
Stitch says that it was important to have the custom-fitted seats aboard their spacecraft to ensure that the two astronauts were not injured during re-entry and landing. New custom seats were installed on the Dragon capsule that arrived in September, ensuring a smooth return.
“When we laid all that out, the best option was really the one that we are embarking upon now,” Stitch said.
The two “stranded” astronauts don’t seem terribly anxious to get back.
The astronauts more or less have said nobody has asked them about when and how they’d like to come back.
Last Man on Earth
Starring Vincent Price.
Garlic on the the front door,
“But I love my mother-in-law. If she doesn’t share my views on DEI I suppose I’ll have to do what 99 percent of Americans do when confronted with a family member who doesn’t always agree with them: get over it,” Vance said. “I’ll choose instead to focus on her kindness and the fact that she’s an incredible mother and loving grandmother to the most important people in my life.”
Vance added, “This story exists because CBS has decided that harassing my mother in law is a reasonable price in order to attack President Trump.” Chilukuri did not reply to emailed questions. A spokesperson for the university declined to comment.
Probably not 99%, but more than a few that understand you can have a healthy relationship with family and disagree with things.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jd-vance-dei-mother-in-law-lakshmi-chilukuri/
She should be shamed for not cutting off all ties with him and her grandchildren, obviously.
Healthy? Tormenting my mother has been a life long series of actions that will only stop in death.
And the US taxpayer should pay for this, why?
Another project halted: An effort to provide chlorine tablets and soapy water and messages about good hygiene to help prevent diarrhea deaths in Bangladesh.
Johns Hopkins Plans Staff Layoffs After $800 Million Grant Cuts
https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/johns-hopkins-federal-funding-foreign-aid-cut-ca841d31?st=f5EoUs&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Johns Hopkins has thousands of rich alumni, just from their medical school alone. Hit them up for donations.
Look, if you don’t have the common sense to wash your hands before eating, why should I spend my tax dollars to warn you of your fate?
^^ What he said.
Oh, the horror that endowments might have to be tapped!
Endowments tapped?! Whoa, whoa, whoa now. That is over the line.
Soap for Bangladesh. 800 million dollars.
Sink 800 billion into Bangladesh and a year later nothing will have changed.
This is why Trump is President.
Look, if you don’t have the common sense to wash your hands before eating, why should I spend my tax dollars to warn you of your fate?
Basic hygiene is not easily grasped by our little brown brothers. Take up the white man’s burden.
LEAVE RAND PAUL ALONE! *sobs