Krasnov’s learned nothing, I see

Yeah… obvious response to being thumped in the midterms over the extremism of his regime, promote one of the worst extremists to one of the highest positions in government.

I don’t actually know anything about Susie Wiles, other than someone in the Puzzle in a Thunderstorm group called her “competent and evil”, and some further commentary I’ve read on Bluesky pretty much agrees with that; apparently an awful person, but one of the smarter people in the Reich. However, it appears Trump’s been cooling on her for a while, and from what I can gather she did herself no favours by doing a Vanity Fair interview in which she was a bit… honest about some of her co-workers. So did she jump or get pushed? I don’t know. Apparently she was only staying in the job until early next year anyway, and she was treated for breast cancer a few months ago too, so maybe she decided to just take retirement (and put some distance between her and Trump) a bit earlier than planned. Or Trump gave her no option, which I think is more likely.

To be honest, I also wonder how much replacing her with American Goebbels is really his idea too, given that Katie Miller has apparently been pushing for her husband to get this promotion for quite some time; and, as soon as I saw the headlines about it, I did kind of immediately think this was Stevo exploiting the confusion of the moment (not to mention the confusion of Krasnov) to impose himself and Trump’s just going along with it. Either way, this feels like a terrible idea, though I don’t know if this will be worse for the Republicans (cos people who don’t know about him are going to find out) or the rest of the world… we still have potentially two years of Mushroom Cock left, and this vampire cunt doesn’t have anyone to hold him back. Maybe this is what’ll remind people the fight is nowhere near over despite Tuesday…

Some miscellaneous stuff

Just gathering a bunch of midterms-related stuff in one place…

Maybe God was Muslim all along? Laura Loomer‘s taken the midterms collapse worse than most, and this is actually a minor point in an amazing broader outburst:

THAT monstrosity was posted on Bluesky by The Serfs; that’s what an online mental breakdown evidently looks like. I had to post this at full size, cos shrinking it at all would’ve rendered it unreadable, and you will need to click to enlarge just to stand a chance of reading it; but, though it would’ve been easier to just cut and paste all that seething into a Word document or something for readability’s sake, the sheer wall of text looks more impressive. Fucking wild. Per Mediaite:

MAGA loyalist Laura Loomer announced Thursday she is taking a break from her political podcast just days after launching into a furious social media tirade over Republicans’ crushing defeat in the midterm elections.
Loomer, one of the president’s most outspoken supporters, revealed in a post to X that she would suspend her twice-weekly livestream, Loomer Unleashed, saying that she was “running on empty” and needed “a healthy work life balance” […]
During the barrage, she declared that the result was the “death of America as we know it” while predicting widespread political violence and terrorism following the Democratic victories.
Despite stepping back from broadcasting, Loomer insisted she would remain politically active and continue backing the president.
“I’ll still be paying attention, fully supporting President Trump, breaking news, commenting on news, doing research and I’ll be around. I will be present (I always am). But, I won’t be doing my show for a while,” Loomer said.
“I’ll be back when the time is right,” she added.

I have my doubts. Meanwhile, noted dog lover Kristi Noem actually said this:

…which struck me as so stupid I initially thought it had to be fake, but… no, she actually also posted this on FB, which I saw with my own two eyes. What does “too successful” even mean? How can you be “too successful”? No. People turn on failures, not successes, you moron…

This, on the other hand, is just unbelievable. Maybe Trump has actually said this to someone, but I don’t believe for a minute that he would actually resign. He may be the lamest of lame ducks right now, but I think he’s just too stupid to accept that and too venal to willingly give up the presidency, even if there’s not as much actual power or money still in it for him. And I feel the Democrats may be too cowardly to impeach him while he’s still president.

I will confess to wishing Charlie Kirk was still alive to see all this. Meanwhile this was the White House’s evidently official response to the debacle:

…but my online friend Matthew had a better response to that:

And I think I might leave this post at that and give Matt the final word. I’ve no doubt there will be more to say here about the fallout from this election, but I think I’ve already covered most of the things that needed covering. Hopefully back to normal (?) broadcasting soon…

RIP CybertrucKKK?

Elon Musk appears to signal the end of the road for Cybertruck

Tesla will wind down production of its Cybertruck vehicles at its Texas factory next year, Elon Musk says.
He did not spell out whether it plans to stop making them entirely or shift production elsewhere, but did say the decision was to “make room” for building more of its self-driving Cybercab cars.
But the project’s lead engineer, Wes Morrill, appeared to suggest the vehicle was being discontinued, writing on X: “Cybertruck was an incredible technology development platform and lives on through Cybercab.”
With its distinctive angular looks, the Cybertruck attracted diehard fans, but was beset by delays before being launched in 2023 and has had disappointing sales numbers since.
Tesla fans have been mourning the news online, with one person calling it “the best vehicle Tesla has ever made” as he lamented it being “discontinued next year”.
Musk responded to the user with the word “true”, adding: “But the Cybertruck fleet will be around for a long time.”

Does that mean the fucking things are non-biodegradable or they’re just going to occupy a vast parking lot somewhere that no one ever visits and no one ever buys one? I will at least give Cybercab points for being significantly less boxy and hideous than its predecessor, but given Tesla’s history with their self-driving cars, that’s not enough to convince me it’ll necessarily be any better…

In non-midterms news…

Yeah, THAT’s who you want a ringing personal endorsement from, eh… Anyway, the other thing that happened the other day that wasn’t US elections should be noted:

Yeah, Rusty’s done, and I don’t think too many people are sorry:

Russell Brand has been convicted of rape and sexual assault, and is now expected to face a substantial prison sentence.
A jury found the entertainer guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault, following a four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court in London.
He was found not guilty of two other counts of rape, and one count of attempted indecent assault. The jury deliberated for eight-and-a-half hours.
The 51-year-old was refused bail and will spend the weekend in custody before he is due to return to the same court on Monday for sentencing.
It can now be reported that Brand is also facing further rape allegations made by two women and has already been questioned by officers in relation to the complaints. The Metropolitan Police said its investigation “remains ongoing”. […]
Mr Justice Bennathan ruled that Brand must be remanded into custody until sentencing on Monday, when he is expected to receive a lengthy prison sentence.
The judge said “I regret the hardship caused to the children, of course” after being told that Brand would like bail over the weekend to explain the convictions to his children.
But he said Brand “has considerable resources”, adding: “Whatever the good intentions of the family and the defendant today, I think there are substantial grounds to fear he might in the end not feel able to come along and face his sentence.”

Oh, you BITCH. I think Mr Justice Bennathan is not exactly a Brand fan and that sentence is going to be a long one. I’ve said before that I was never a Brand fan either; even when we were apparently on the same political side, I could never take him as seriously as a political expert as he did himself. I was also less cynical than most about his Christian turn, though I still think it was interestingly timed and showy in the way Jesus overtly tells you not to do. Verily I say unto you, Rusty hath his reward…

Ryan should take his own advice

Yeah, Colorado representative Ryan Gonzalez actually DID say that on Twitter, as the screengrab I got myself from Sotwe shows…

He really would, but maybe you would too, Ryan…

Ah, Haley Stevens, the REAL tragedy of the midterms. Stevens was, and I do mean was, a Democrat who wanted to stand for Michigan in the senate election but lost in the primary to Abdul El-Sayed. Having lost the primary, she then apparently lost her mind a couple of days before the election by endorsing El-Sayed’s Republican opponent Mike Rogers. This was such a baffling move that apparently even Rogers’ campaign team were surprised and confused by it, though they certainly wouldn’t have been as angry as Democrats were… I still wonder what she was thinking, cos El-Sayed beat Rogers by a fairly comfortable margin and she just lost her entire career, and I don’t even understand what for. What did she get out of it? Yeah. Be her, all right. Plus…

Well, Alaska is apparently still too close to call, but all the others went the way the poll there said they would. Don’t know about the accuracy of the numbers, but they all went blue and Alaska could still do the same. As for Colorado, well, as the original poster at the top observed:

Alas, Ryan’s own “enthusiasm” seems to have been a bit premature itself, with Tommy Butler apparently beating him comfortably with something like 60% of the vote. Perhaps that bit about shutting the fuck up applies even better to him than it does Krasnov…

Meanwhile in Israel…

Remember there was an election there as well last week? It hasnt had the column inches the American one, at least in part cos it appears there was no real winner; neither Bibi nor his primary opposition figure Gadi Eisenkot (who I’d never heard of before last week; I’m not sure what that says about me or the Internet’s general coverage of the Middle East) actually got the requisite majority to declare outright victory. Israeli politics basically seems to run on coalitions cos no single party is big enough to pull it off. In any case the results, such as they were, have now been certified and Bibi is not happy:

Arab-led parties won a record 19 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, up from 10 seats in the previous election.
The fallout from Israel’s inconclusive election takes another dramatic turn amid allegations of foreign interference.
Mr Netanyahu and his supporters have repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims that the Arab-led parties stole the election, possibly with foreign assistance.
“The review found no evidence of irregularities that compromised the integrity of the election or affected its results,” the election commission said in a statement.
Elections committee acting director Dean Livne said the investigation examined every complaint “individually and thoroughly” but found no evidence to support allegations that the election results were invalid. […]
A separate investigation by the Shin Bet intelligence service into allegations of foreign interference is ongoing, according to a spokesperson for the elections committee.
In a private meeting of the election committee’s members on Wednesday, its head — Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg — read out an intelligence assessment from the Shin Bet saying the agency believed there had been a “widespread phenomenon involving the influx of substantial funds into Israel from foreign states”, including from countries hostile toward Israel.
The Shin Bet provided no evidence to explain its assertion.
The committee has previously said that while claims about foreign actors seeking to influence the election are serious and under investigation, it does not believe that any such interference affected the results — even if it had happened.

Personally I’d be surprised if foreign states weren’t sending money to Israel for this, particularly the US… Anyway, I gather that Isaac Herzog now has to decide whether Bibi or Gadi actually gets to form government, which they may have to do together (which I don’t suppose either of them wants) or maybe Eisenkot will team up with the Arab parties who’ve apparently expressed an interest in doing so (which I don’t think anyone else really wants), and if all else fails Israel goes back to another election next year. I suspect Herzog will just go for Netanyahu to keep Trump happy.

The biggest loser

Yes. Yes, he did. About $170m-$200m (I see different quotes of just how much) of that specifically went on the Texas race, because Edolf has issues with Democrat contender James Talarico:

…and the latter’s response was to absolutely fucking stomp on Republican contender Ken Paxton. To be sure, Talarico had been targeted by the Republicans generally for months beforehand, so they should probably take some blame for boosting his profile so much… but dickhead went into a real fit about him, as you can see. And the “creep” still won.

The only problem, of course, is that $470m or whatever it was won’t actually hurt him that much; when you’re worth nearly 900 billion dollars, that’s kind of small change. Conversely, he might feel the apparently sixty billions he’s also lost from SpaceX and Tesla shares dropping after the election… I suspect, though, he won’t actually learn anything from this and will only double down on this stupidity, which is obviously fine by me; as long as all his expenditure has no tangible results, I’m entirely in favour of him blowing as much money as he likes. His shareholders might feel differently, mind you…

Deus wilt

Now THIS is one of the best memes on yesterday’s debacle that I’ve seen yet. We obviously remember the unfortunate Liz Truss (and how great is it that the lettuce has its own Wiki entry?), and it looks like Pete Kegsbreath’s career could be on a similar timescale… from what I’m seeing online, Mushroom Cock is obviously furious and looking for someone to throw under the bus for what happened on Tuesday, and Hegseth is apparently the favoured target. J. Divans actually said this much on the subject:

“The real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone … The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Vance said in a lengthy post on X. “If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest.
“Everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there,” added Vance, who had reportedly been sceptical about the unresolved war, which Trump launched in February alongside Israel.

Trump did indeed kind of say the Iran nonsense was at least part of the problem, but obviously he’s not going to accept any blame for it… so who does that leave? Well, obviously Pete’s the most likely candidate, and Republican insiders have been saying that Trump is publicly supporting him but also privately asking if he should get rid of the guy. As it stands, a couple of months ago Thomas Massie—who’s a Republican Congressman, no less—drew up a bunch of impeachment articles against Hegseth for illegally starting the war and then refusing to stop it, for extrajudicial killings, for kidnapping Nicolas Maduro (remember him?), and for participating in the war in Yemen as well, and he’s been talking about forcing a vote on the matter. If he holds off on doing so until the new Congress starts, I think he’ll have no trouble with that. So I think even if Trump does wind up keeping Hegseth, the latter could be fucked anyway.

How about those midterms

Which kind of sums up my reaction to the US election. From what I can see, the Republicans cannot win; if all the still uncounted senate and house seats went their way, it still wouldn’t be enough. The Democrats have pulled off the “blue tsunami”.

And… that surprises me, to be honest.

I’m always left with a terrible feeling about US politics because, you know, US politics, and despite all the enthusiasm in my particular online bubble that the Democrats would succeed, I couldn’t convince myself. It was obviously pleasant to open up the Graun and see that they did—not a gigantic margin but enough to give the Republicans grief—but I wouldn’t have been surprised somehow to find they didn’t. I’m still half-expecting a repeat of January 6. I thought that if the Republicans won that would make them behave worse than they already do, and if they lost they would behave even worse than that, and I still expect that from them. And I feel there’s only so much the Democrats will do to frustrate them. Too many in the Democrats need to get the hell out of there too (especially you, Fetterman).

Still—a positive beginning that the Democrats will hopefully be smart enough to take advantage of. There’s been some really historic flips (apparently the Kansas senate has gone Democrat for the first time since 1932). And we’ve already had one outstanding meme, with no doubt more to come: