Cook Political Report.

In the unlikely event that one of their clueless terrified sex slaves actually even comes to understand the nature of what’s happening to them, and then actually has the courage to complain to someone about it, all of the other cult leaders will hush it up and let the abuser keep abusing. Their cult leader friends in the government will cover it up further if it needs further covering up.

Maybe when one of the many abusers- like Zvi Tau – gets to be 85 years old, enjoying the deep sexual satisfaction of decades of raping children, one of his victims finally decides to give complaining about it another try. She does embarrassing things like stage solitary protests in front of the Knesset, which only shows how insane she is and how her claims are pathetic delusions poor woman.

But then other similar psychos come forward with the same story and a few respectable rabbis back their claims and call for an investigation. Here’s one woman describing the esteemed sage in action:

“I was a new immigrant, my parents were abroad, I was all alone,” she said, explaining that she met the Taus through social gatherings and friends. She became close with Tau’s first wife, Channa Tau, and practically became part of the family, according to her testimony.

‘“One day I was in the kitchen, putting things away when he came in and closed the door behind him. He grabbed me, pulled my underwear down, and undressed,” she recollected.

“At one point, I woke up, I realized what was happening and kicked him in the groin. I ran to the balcony because he had closed the door and managed to escape without my underwear,” she said.

“I got home and just froze. I think I stayed like that for two days,” she said.’

What wisdom. To go after the most vulnerable.

******************************

But look at Israel’s current government, folks! Nobody’s going to get in the way of all the wise eminent rabbis who rape! The Israeli authorities are going to let Zvi go to his well-deserved heavenly rest.

And remember: It’s not criminal. It’s not child abuse. In a cult it’s godly. It’s only the disgusting dirty secular world that doesn’t understand this.

Apparently Trump plans to start down this road as early as his presidential campaign announcement (expected, in the powerful wake of his Red Wave, any day now), where a PowerPoint of parallel Melania/Casey photos will accompany his remarks.

Aides have been attempting to convey to Trump that sometimes things that work in one political cycle might fail to work in others; and that while sexualizing your wife for votes might have worked well when Melania was, er, younger, it is unlikely to work against the still-nubile and spectacularly beautiful Casey DeSantis, who can also write and deliver her own speeches in English, does not need to lie about having graduated from college, etc. etc. etc.

So far the only response Trump has given advisors has been to triple down on his plan. He will contrast images of Casey DeSantis with all three of his wives – Ivana, Marla, and Melania.

“Mr President, Ivana will remind people of your age, since she got old enough to die. Marla will remind them that you traded Ivana in for a younger model. Please do not do this.”

On top of that, another Republican insider with access to top Trump advisors claims that Trump is “fully aware” he’s unelectable, and that he regards the upcoming campaign as primarily a “personal rejuvenation” project. “He’s feeling his years. Mentally and physically he’s really dragging. He’s convinced the gladiatorial aspect of campaigning will give him a new lease on life.” He has already asked his exploratory committee to consider a tweak in the MAGA hat: MAKE MY PROSTATE GREAT AGAIN.

‘House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy had been expected to take the stage of his election-night party at a D.C. hotel as early as 10 p.m.

• But come midnight, the main venue floor was empty as a small group of aides and staffers mingled near the open bar.’

Guys and gals, lad. Guys and gals.

We took a look at Yesli Vega here.

In a blow to moral degenerates everywhere, she, like so many Republicans this morning, has lost.

What will their parents do, now that The Prince of Intellectual Darkness, that fervent ignorance-advocate Lee Zeldin, has been defeated?

As you know, UD has been predicting that if Zeldin’s defeated, many of New York’s ultraorthodox will do the obvious thing and enjoy life under the orthodox/ultraorthodox theocracy that is contemporary Israel.

As the Dems do far better than predicted, UD’s watching the very close race between Incumbent Sadist Lauren Boebert and her challenger (who as of this writing holds a narrow lead) Adam Frisch.

Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Jeffrey E. Epstein who for years maintained that the law professor Alan Dershowitz sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager, settled a defamation lawsuit against Mr. Dershowitz on Tuesday, and said that she may have made a mistake in accusing him…

The joint statement also included comments from Mr. Dershowitz, who commended Ms. Giuffre for her courage in saying she may have been mistaken.

LUNAR ECLIPSE

First white, then gray eclipse, with remnant light

Drifting down to a Cheshire grin…

The remnant’s gone, and the full moon

Reddens in dead branches.

The moon’s dark and ruddy, dark enough to let the stars out, sharp,

In a cold city. 

***********************

The dead leaf garden, once blanched

By the moon to look like snow,

Starts back in wonder now at the blackness of the night,

Then tries to wait for dawn.

*********************

White, gray, red, back to white, and then

From white to vanished in the next day’s light  —

These lunar moods bring in, with ebbing tide,

Remembrance of you. Of your suicide.

1. Play Bach’s Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother BWV 992.
2. Sample what’s left of the crispy salmon you made for dinner.
3. Empty the dishwasher.
4. Check on your dog, asleep on top of seven blankets in the guest room. Give her a kiss.
5. Play Wordle (it took me five moves).
6. Go to the NYT archives and complete two acrostics. (Each took me about twenty minutes.)
7. Check Amazon for extra large socks with octopuses on them for Andrew Ferree MD’s Christmas present.
8. Read many articles about the spread of Iran-inspired hijab-burning around the world.
9. Go out on the deck with binoculars and marvel at how gorgeous the night sky already is, without even a lunar eclipse.
10. Go to Winston’s Gutters website and request a visit.

… So I’ll trust you to go to YouTube and watch Sophia Rosing do her thing; I’d rather link you to this narrative by one of the long-suffering U Kentucky students attacked by this drunk violent racist.

About the video: It’s too bad for the worst among us that everyone’s got a camera these days and knows how to use it. This particular docudrama makes for irresistably engrossing viewing, so it’ll rack up a lot of views.

“Kiss your entire future away, babe,” says the camerawoman as Rosing spews it and spews it, and then hits everyone, including the policeman who shows up. Certainly her future at UK (Kentucky always makes the top ten most racist states lists, and for personal safety as well as reputational reasons, the school is going to have to let this … dynamic … white supremacist go); but she has looks, gumption, and the sort of straightforward approach to the race problem that guarantees her a political future in any number of Idaho congressional districts.

I’m gonna predict that maw and paw will bring out the jesus brigade to wrap her in their love and forgiveness. Cry like Jimmy Swaggart, Soph! If this happened a little further north, the folks would find some psychiatrist to attest to her years of emotional struggle; but it’s the southland, so I’m thinking it’ll be the jesus brigade.

[F]eeling a little dopesick is part of the point of doing heroin… [T]o some degree, pain, shame, and degradation are part of the appeal. These are the feelings – not the high, not the euphoria – that actually crack a user loose from the ‘smothering chokehold of love and normalcy.’

The last phrase is Anthony Bourdain’s complaint about his childhood.

*****************

Recall psychoanalyst Adam Phillips:

These are parts of ourselves – that don’t want to live, that hate our children, that want ourselves to fail.  [T]here is something strange about humans: they are recalcitrant to what is supposed to be their project.

We’ve followed many of them on this blog over the years, wrenching accounts of young innocents who adored college football and watched it obsessively until, you know, violence, concussions, asshole players and coaches…

I was watching when the Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s fingers twisted up during what looked like a seizure after his head slammed on the turf. But at least Tua had $30 million in the bank. He wasn’t a teenager, too young to understand the risks, counting on the adults to protect him.

… [I] can’t watch college football at all anymore…

Then a whole bunch of stuff about how mentally challenged coach/player-senators and senator-candidates mean all of America’s becoming college football by a different name.

Tommy Tuberville coached in the Cotton Bowl in 2007. He’ll be in the U.S. Senate until at least 2026. He is America’s future.

Maybe a tad overstated, but it’s the final three sentences of the piece and dude wants to end with a bang.

Anyway, people like UD have been saying the same thing about college ball for twenty years – accompanied by mucho scoffing/derision – but it don’t make no nevermind. I don’t actually think Tom of the Tuberville is our national future; but, like his exemplar Trump, he’s certainly able to kick up a lot of shit.