I follow Robert Christgau because how can I not,
but also because he catches me up on acts like this.
On the one hand, the outrages never cease; on the other hand, it’s a great age for grim amusements! For example, for 10 days after the catastrophic Texas floods that FEMA (and the local authorities) fucked up, FEMA figurehead David Richardson was entirely AWOL, but this weekend they finally dug him up (literally, from the looks of him) and put him in front of a map, a Texas flag, and some other doughy white dudes to glower and posture, as discovered by the mighty Marisa Kabas:
Like Woody Allen almost said, 80% of success is showing up – ten days late! Look at the fucker:
I assume they found him passed out in a nearby motel room strewn with crack pipes and empty tequila bottles and THANX FOR THE WALLET BITCH! scrawled in lipstick on the mirror. (The shower was broken so the federal “rescue team” took him to the pool and dunked him before transporting him to his photo op.)
This is the whole MAGA approach: Destroy institutions/kill people with your incompetence and maliciousness, then (like Kristi Noem) swagger onto the scene in some outlandish costume to announce the success of the operation.
We knew from the start their goal was to wreck enough government services that people might forget a competent government ever existed and that their tax dollars once did anything but pay off Tubby and his goons. But, boy, they’ve been sloppy about it – and maybe that’s a built-in problem for them, because the vicious arrogance that makes them want to do it in the first place is also what makes them so lazy about pretending they’re doing anything else. Showing up and doing your job? That’s for losers. Real leaders strut for the cameras and then peace out.
I like to think the slight backtracking these bastards have done – like Tom “Evil Stubby Kaye” Homan pretending he gives a shit about due process and ICE’s prey, and Noem claiming Tubby no longer wants to get rid of FEMA – is a sign, not of progress, but of panic. They’ll find their footing again soon and try some new outrages, but at least there’s a bit of a window now to slip some mines in their path.
Like the Epstein files! That’s another example of Trump’s gang believing they can be totally careless about their racket – in this case, ginning up a scandal for years and then saying whoops, never happened -- and not get blowback. I see their current plan is to stonewall and make the MAGA faithful eat it, which is great, because every minute they stick at it more voters finally get wise to them. Of course that won’t matter if we don’t have elections anymore, but as Vaclav Havel said: Act as if.
Freebies from Roy Edroso Breaks It Down: First, Elon Musk runs his newly Free Speechified Grok past some prominent Jewish conservatives – hilarity ensues! And: An essay about a curious trend among the “liberal media” (what I call the Prestige Press) to side with the old, reactionary, time-serving and unpopular Democrats against the young, popular, progressive Democrats, and why that may be a bigger problem than Trump.