When she is lonely and the longing gets too much, she sends the tabbies coming in from above ...
Wow, the James Talarico bot problem goes WAY deeper than 2 clips
— ATX data (@data_atx) June 1, 2026
How many republicans are out there whispering in this guy's ear?? 😂 pic.twitter.com/ahDgBoP4ed
Ed: This was Joe Biden's phony fable for decades, too. He'd claim that Republicans actually supported him or one of his initiatives but needed to remain silent publicly. If you're going to steal someone's schtick, why steal from Joe Biden?
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Daily Wire: For many self-described religious Democrats, squaring their support for abortion and radical gender ideology with their faith is a challenge. But at Texas Democrat James Talarico’s church, supporting abortions is part of the congregation’s “goals for the world.”
At the Texas church where the Democrat senate hopeful preaches sermons on the need for abortion in the “trans community,” church funds are sent not only to abortion giant Planned Parenthood, but also to radical organizations that pay to help facilitate out-of-state travel for women to kill their unborn babies, and an organization that runs a summer camp for transgender-identifying kids as young as 11. ...
The church, which The Daily Wire reported last week stocks sexually explicit books aimed at young people in its library, sets aside money every year for Planned Parenthood, according to its website. It also describes itself as a “Reproductive Freedom Congregation,” meaning it believes that “abortion is a blessing.
Ed: This is what the media wants Christianity to be. You'd better believe they will double down on this over the next five months, too. They'll get plenty of support from progressive ministers too, who will attempt to shame mainline Christians for noticing how far out Talarico is from the tenets of the faith. It's not just quoting from apocrypha, either.
===
I’ve been reacting to Talarico for almost 12 months, since his Rogan interview.
— Josh Howerton (@howertonjosh) June 1, 2026
I do not say this lightly and if you follow me you’ll know I don’t use this phrase very often (have maybe done it publicly 3 times in my whole ministry): he is an actual heretic with a mass…
... he is an actual heretic with a mass following in my state. Addressing that is in a pastor’s job description.
Ed: That is literally true. Pastors are supposed to warn the faithful about heretics and false prophets claiming to reinterpret the scriptures in any sort of prophetic sense.
===
NY Times: By his own account, Mr. Rigby has been a major influence and inspiration. And now, Mr. Talarico’s opponents are also turning a critical eye to the pastor. They are finding a spiritual leader whose views on political issues like immigration and abortion, but also questions like the historical truth of the resurrection of Jesus, are out of step with the teachings of many other churches.
Mr. Rigby’s theology and his rhetoric reflect what would be heard at many Mainline and progressive Christian churches across the country. But in Texas, where conservative evangelicalism looms large, they are rarely visible on platforms like the ones Mr. Talarico now occupies.
Mr. Rigby does not use male pronouns for God, for example, because it is a kind of “violence” to imply to a girl that her brother is more like God than she is, he said in an interview after the service. He does not use the word “Lord,” because it conjures a wealthy, European, male God, he said. For that matter, he added, he does not much care for the word “God.” He uses it on occasion, he said, but he tries to use synonyms, because “it’s going to mean something different to everybody.”
Ed: First off, let me call BS on the notion that "Mainline" Christian churches question the historical truth of the resurrection of Jesus. There is no Christianity without the Resurrection, full stop. Progressive churches might question it, but those churches are more akin to political/cultural clubs than religious congregations. Furthermore, Rigby's excuse that "Lord" sounds European flies directly in the face of the Old Testament and the use of the Hebrew word "Adonai," which means either Lord or Master. It predates European feudal systems by millennia. This entire NYT profile is meant to mainstream Talarico, but instead, it shows just how heretical his formation has been. I will write more about this later, I suspect.
===
Calling James Talarico’s spiritual mentor and church pastor “gnostic” would do a massive disservice to the gnostics, who were often significantly more Christian than Jim Rigby seems to be by his own words. This is at best a social advocacy club and not a church at all https://t.co/9guhKYHqWX pic.twitter.com/5eCc6bunqN
— Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) June 1, 2026
Ed: The Gnostics believe in secret knowledge that must be unlocked for salvation, as well as that the material world is evil itself. The Da Vinci Code is a pretty good example of gnosticism, in fact. However, I am unaware of a form of heresy that argued that Christ did not exist and/or did not return from the dead. That goes beyond heresy and straight into repudiation of the Gospels and the entire New Testament.
===
WSJ: The Trump administration on Monday signaled a retreat on its nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, which met powerful pushback from members of Congress and threatened to derail the president’s efforts to pass immigration enforcement funding.
The Justice Department said it would abide by a judge’s order Friday directing the government to temporarily halt work on the fund, such as moving money into it or considering claims, “to ensure that no funds are irreversibly disbursed” ahead of a mid-June hearing. ...
A White House official said the Justice Department’s statement was the first step toward dropping the fund. But the official cautioned that President Trump could change his mind.
Ed: Yeah, well ... he shouldn't. This was a bad idea, although not necessarily an illegal idea, as Andy McCarthy explained at NRO last week. Those wronged by the weaponization of the DoJ in the past should bring their own court actions, and the DoJ can settle them directly if they so choose.
===
Thune indicating he believes Republicans should drop Justice Department funding from the reconciliation bill, saying the legislation should go back to its "original intent":
— Jordain Carney (@jordainc) June 1, 2026
"I think the best way to get the reconciliation bill moving and across the finish line is to confine it…
"I think the best way to get the reconciliation bill moving and across the finish line is to confine it to the issues we were addressing in the initial bill, which was CBP ICE and funding it for the next three years”
Ed: The White House isn't throwing in the towel just because of a pause by a federal district court judge. It's because Senate Republicans refused to move forward on reconciliation until this fund got shut down.
===
Variety: The “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host opened up in a new interview with Vulture about the future of the genre following the cancellation of Stephen Colbert‘s “Late Show” on CBS and his own run-ins with Trump, including his suspension following comments made about the death of Charlie Kirk.
“I feel a little bit defeated about it,” Kimmel told Vulture after Colbert’s final episode aired on May 21. “In a lot of ways, I feel like I’m looking at my own future.” ...
Though it was reported that Colbert’s show was losing $40 million a year, Kimmel told Vulture he finds that hard to believe, pointing to a 2023 New York Times article that claims Colbert was offered a five-year contract but decided to go with three.
“Am I to believe that over the course of those two years, they suddenly started losing $40 million a year?” he said. “These are just made-up numbers.”
Ed: No, Colbert didn't start "suddenly losing $40 million a year." Those losses came from audience erosion that had begun a few years ago when Colbert went The Full Antifa, and got progressively worse. The sale of Paramount made the losses unsustainable, as the owners had to disclose the losses to Skydance in the process and the losses leaked to the media. And while Kimmel insists that his show remains profitable, the insultingly short extension Kimmel received a few months ago makes that a very, very questionable claim.
===
Wow. Somebody just died on Karen's livestream. LAPD is setting up a white tent to cover the body. This isn't a reality show, it's a horror film. Please pray for this city. https://t.co/WRecu0953X pic.twitter.com/7N9J8OCGoC
— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) May 31, 2026
Ed: Los Angeles is a horrorshow these days. Everyone understands that now. Unfortunately, America's cities have descended into madness so slowly that no one remembers that it's optional.
===
Mediaite: Bill Maher and Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt (R) both skewered college students who support Hamas and bash Israel during the Monday’s episode of Maher’s Club Random podcast.
Maher got onto the topic by calling Harvard University an “a**hole factory.” He said that’s obvious when “kids are chanting for Hamas” on campus, before saying it was a “big issue” but that the two of them didn’t have to discuss it further.
“I will go there,” Pratt told him, “because I grew up in LA. All my best friends are Jewish. I grew up going to Crossroads [High School], I’ve been to more Bar and Bat Mitzvahs than I’d been to church… maybe it’s still tied. To the point where of course when I’m running for mayor I’m going to temples, I’m supporting my Jewish friends.”
He continued, “The level of psycho-Nazi lunacy that came at me, to just say that I want my friends and family to feel safe in LA, to feel safe if their kids go to UCLA.”
===
ABC: Do you have concerns that Graham Platner may jeopardise Democratic hopes to get that Senate seat in Maine?
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 31, 2026
BOOKER: "Yeah, I have concerns. The guy has questions to answer..." pic.twitter.com/lVt3Chajfx
Ed: We all have questions for Platner. And he's not answering them. Instead, Platner, his wife, and his campaign act as though they are the victims of journalistic malpractice, which Jim Geraghty finds amusing ...
===
Jim Geraghty at NRO: Platner launched his U.S. Senate campaign in Maine on August 19; as I wrote this weekend, “this is a long-forgotten youthful indiscretion from last summer.” The last married candidate whom I can remember pledging that he had stopped online sexual communications with six to ten women was former congressman Anthony Weiner. Things turned out very badly for him.
In an interview with local television, Platner said, “The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times ran stories without any evidence besides the gossip from a former staffer. I’m sorry, that’s uh… that’s frankly journalistic malpractice.”
Except . . . his campaign verified the authenticity of the messages.
He added, “the establishment media outlets are just gonna run gossip instead of wanting to talk about the things that actually matter in this race.”
The inconvenience of a fact does not make it gossip.
Ed: There's more coming, too.
===
AIPAC is American citizens who happen to be Jewish.
— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) June 1, 2026
The man with the SS tattoo on his body has the audacity to say that Jewish Americans are not allowed to donate money to the candidate is their choice?
Every single dollar from AIPAC comes from American citizens.
What’s…
What’s next? No Catholic money? No Protestant money? How does this end? Anyone from either party who supports people like this is a threat to our Constitution and the religious freedoms it protects.
Ed: "Nazi blames Jews for personal troubles" is an unfortunately evergreen headline.
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Axios: Maine Democratic Senate primary frontrunner Graham Platner is scheduled to meet with Democratic senators in Washington on Tuesday afternoon, according to two people familiar with the plans.
Why it matters: The long-planned meeting will give senators an opportunity to ask Platner directly about allegations that he sent sexually explicit text messages to as many as a dozen women in 2023, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Ed: Democrats meeting with and funding Platner had better hope nothing else drops while he's getting wined and dined by party leadership. That would blow up in everyone's faces if something significant and new erupts. Stay tuned.
===
Janet Mills to the Sun Journal today:
— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) June 1, 2026
"People have the impression that I withdrew or dropped out, but I simply suspended active campaigning. I am still on the ballot." pic.twitter.com/3cXyieoMp2
Ed: Dun-dun-duuuunnnnn ....
===
Saturday night's lyric: "Come A Little Bit Closer" by Jay and the Americans.
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