<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:googleplay="http://www.google.com/schemas/play-podcasts/1.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Kevin Kane: Satire]]></title><description><![CDATA[Dumb funny stuff I write]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/s/satire</link><image><url>https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-vua!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7292ac4f-c568-4f28-8596-723877d83393_1024x1024.png</url><title>Kevin Kane: Satire</title><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/s/satire</link></image><generator>Substack</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 04 Sep 2026 22:49:49 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.kevinkane.net/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><copyright><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></copyright><language><![CDATA[en]]></language><webMaster><![CDATA[kevinkaneauthor@substack.com]]></webMaster><itunes:owner><itunes:email><![CDATA[kevinkaneauthor@substack.com]]></itunes:email><itunes:name><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></itunes:name></itunes:owner><itunes:author><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></itunes:author><googleplay:owner><![CDATA[kevinkaneauthor@substack.com]]></googleplay:owner><googleplay:email><![CDATA[kevinkaneauthor@substack.com]]></googleplay:email><googleplay:author><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></googleplay:author><itunes:block><![CDATA[Yes]]></itunes:block><item><title><![CDATA[Zach Snyder Fans Officially Recognized as New Mental Disorder]]></title><description><![CDATA[Barbie: The Snyder Cut now available to stream]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/zach-snyder-fans-officially-recognized</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/zach-snyder-fans-officially-recognized</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 28 Aug 2026 16:07:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zQaK!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fff08047c-45cb-41b4-b379-34a5d3a8224e_1080x562.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zQaK!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fff08047c-45cb-41b4-b379-34a5d3a8224e_1080x562.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zQaK!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fff08047c-45cb-41b4-b379-34a5d3a8224e_1080x562.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zQaK!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fff08047c-45cb-41b4-b379-34a5d3a8224e_1080x562.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zQaK!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fff08047c-45cb-41b4-b379-34a5d3a8224e_1080x562.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zQaK!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fff08047c-45cb-41b4-b379-34a5d3a8224e_1080x562.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zQaK!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fff08047c-45cb-41b4-b379-34a5d3a8224e_1080x562.png" width="1080" height="562" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zQaK!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fff08047c-45cb-41b4-b379-34a5d3a8224e_1080x562.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zQaK!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fff08047c-45cb-41b4-b379-34a5d3a8224e_1080x562.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zQaK!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fff08047c-45cb-41b4-b379-34a5d3a8224e_1080x562.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zQaK!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fff08047c-45cb-41b4-b379-34a5d3a8224e_1080x562.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong>For years, Zack Snyder fans have perplexed clinical psychologists,</strong> displaying traits that went beyond their peculiar taste in movies yet stubbornly refused to fit within existing diagnostic criteria.</p><p>&#8220;I noticed something was wrong during Barbenheimer,&#8221; said 29-year-old Snyder fan Mike Allen. &#8220;I saw <em>Oppenheimer</em> first, loved it, then watched <em>Barbie</em> and wanted to gouge my eyes out. I ran out of the theater and spent the rest of the weekend watching <em>Justice League</em> on repeat, rocking back and forth. I thought something was wrong with me.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;My colleagues and I kept coming across patients we couldn&#8217;t explain,&#8221; said psychiatrist Dr. Elaine Cho. &#8220;It was like they had autism, if autism dressed like Guy Fieri, and ADHD, if ADHD were narrated by Werner Herzog.&#8221;</p><p>After a decade of research, the American Psychiatric Association announced Friday that Snyder fans will finally receive their own diagnostic category in the DSM: <strong>Snyder Processing Disorder</strong>, or SPD.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Subscribe to receive more fake news.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>The defining breakthrough came when researchers studied the intense online backlash to James Gunn&#8217;s <em>Superman</em>.</p><p>&#8220;Here we had the same hero presented in two vastly different ways,&#8221; Cho explained. &#8220;The Snyder-fan reaction was so uniformly negative that we realized we had stumbled onto Zack Snyder&#8217;s complete antithesis.&#8221;</p><p>Patients are now diagnosed with SPD by placing them along the <strong>Gunn-Snyder Spectrum</strong>, with more severe cases clustering almost entirely at the Snyder end.</p><p>By far, SPD&#8217;s most recognizable sensory trait is difficulty processing action presented at conventional speed.</p><p>&#8220;Much like dyslexic people were wrongly assumed to be slow readers, Snyder fans have been similarly dismissed,&#8221; Cho explained. &#8220;We&#8217;ve found that those with SPD struggle to process fast visual events in real time. A neurotypical viewer sees a punch occur in half a second and understands what happened. An SPD viewer needs at least nine seconds of slow-motion movement to truly absorb cause and effect.&#8221;</p><p>Auditory testing revealed a similar pattern.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s like the movie is pulling my eyeballs one way and the soundtrack is pulling my ears in the complete opposite direction,&#8221; said SPD patient Kyle Branson, abruptly turning off <em>Guardians of the Galaxy</em>.</p><p>&#8220;Unlike patients whose sensory issues involve volume or intensity, people with SPD are perfectly comfortable with loud noises,&#8221; Cho explained. &#8220;Distorted guitars, pounding drums, an Icelandic woman wailing over an explosion&#8212;they love all of that. What they struggle with is recognizable lyrics.&#8221;</p><p>In one experiment, a subject became agitated while watching an <em>Aquaman</em> fight scene set to Dolly Parton&#8217;s &#8220;9 to 5.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;He kept demanding to know whether he was supposed to listen to the song or watch the movie,&#8221; said visual-processing researcher Dr. Marcus Bell.</p><p>The same subject was later shown altered footage of Captain America lifting a concrete slab set to &#8220;God Dragging a Refrigerator Across Heaven (Epic Mix)&#8221; from the <em>Sucker Punch</em> soundtrack and immediately relaxed.</p><p>Another sensory component of SPD appears to be heightened chromatic sensitivity, with patients consistently preferring the muted grays, blues, and browns generally found on a 4K television contemplating suicide. Conversely, saturated colors tended to produce feelings of overstimulation, confusion, and complaints that a film &#8220;looks like fucking Marvel.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;The average person sees Superman&#8217;s bright red cape and thinks, &#8216;Superman,&#8217;&#8221; Bell explained. &#8220;A Snyder-processing brain thinks, &#8216;Why is Superman screaming at me?&#8217;&#8221;</p><p>One of SPD&#8217;s defining traits appears to be a cognitive preference for clearly established roles and strict tonal consistency. Heroes should behave heroically. Villains should act like villains.</p><p>&#8220;Neurotypical audiences tend to view characterization as flexible,&#8221; Cho continued. &#8220;A grim character can occasionally be lighthearted. A comedic character can have tragic moments. That&#8217;s not the case with SPD.&#8221;</p><p>Comedic elements, in particular, are only acceptable when safely quarantined inside a comedy.</p><p>&#8220;In the same way <em>My Little Pony</em> became unexpectedly popular among autistic audiences, the Venn diagram between Zack Snyder fans and Dane Cook fans appears to be almost a perfect circle,&#8221; Cho explained. &#8220;They feel safe laughing because they know he&#8217;s not suddenly going to get serious or say anything of substance.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Dude, I love <em>Step Brothers</em>,&#8221; Branson said when asked about his favorite comedy. &#8220;Everybody in that movie is funny because they know it&#8217;s a funny movie. But <em>Deadpool</em>? God, that guy is annoying.&#8221;</p><p>Branson became visibly uncomfortable when researchers asked whether Batman could make a joke.</p><p>&#8220;What? No! No way! God, no!&#8221;</p><p>When asked why, Branson stared silently at the wall.</p><p>&#8220;Because he&#8217;s Batman. Batman is Batman because his parents died. You don&#8217;t joke after that. Ever.&#8221;</p><p>Branson began banging rhythmically on the table.</p><p>&#8220;Never-ever-ever-ever-ever-ever-ever-ever-ever.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Shoot, he&#8217;s stimming,&#8221; Cho said.</p><p>The session was cut short, and Matt Reeves&#8217;s <em>The Batman</em> was put on to calm Branson down.</p><p>Researchers say this rigid categorical thinking may finally explain why one of the most mocked scenes in Snyder&#8217;s filmography consistently resonates with his most devoted fans.</p><p>&#8220;In <em>Batman v Superman</em>, Batman abandons his murderous vendetta against Superman after learning that Superman&#8217;s mother is also named Martha,&#8221; Cho explained. &#8220;For years, viewers dismissed the moment as contrived, but we believe it may actually represent an unusually efficient form of SPD categorical cognition.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;By a Snyder fan&#8217;s reasoning, Batman has Superman filed under &#8216;ALIEN.&#8217; Aliens are &#8216;NOT HUMAN,&#8217; and anything not human is automatically filed under &#8216;THREAT.&#8217;&#8221;</p><p>Cho gestured to two flowcharts, one representing neurotypical thought processes and the other those of people with SPD.</p><p>&#8220;When Superman tells Batman, &#8216;Save Martha,&#8217; a neurotypical brain immediately starts spiraling. They think, &#8216;What? Who calls their mother by her first name? A normal person would say, &#8220;Save my mom.&#8221; Oh my God, I&#8217;ve been watching this conflict for two hours and its entire resolution hinges on the fact that Superman&#8217;s mom is named Martha? What if his mom were named Jane? Would Batman just kill Superman right there? In what world does that make sense?&#8217;&#8221;</p><p>Cho moved her finger down the SPD flowchart.</p><p>&#8220;But in a Snyder-processing brain, the shared name becomes a revelation that creates an empathic bridge. Through Batman&#8217;s POV, they see the logic as: &#8216;My mom is named Martha. Superman&#8217;s mother is named Martha. And if I&#8217;m a good guy and my mother is named Martha, then Superman must be a good guy too because his mother is also named Martha. We should be friends.&#8217;&#8221;</p><p>Cho nodded.</p><p>&#8220;For an SPD viewer, that&#8217;s not lazy writing. That&#8217;s an extremely satisfying database update.&#8221;</p><p>The addition of SPD to the <em>Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders</em> has prompted major streaming services to begin testing Snyder Cuts as an accessibility feature alongside subtitles, audio description, and sign-language interpretation. When activated, the Snyder Cut automatically desaturates the image, slows significant action moments, removes disruptive humor, and replaces any lyrical songs with Evanescence.</p><p>So far, the results have been promising.</p><p>&#8220;So many of the people we thought were toxic fans were just unrepresented SPD viewers,&#8221; said James Gunn. &#8220;Now that they&#8217;re able to watch the Snyder Cut of <em>Supergirl</em>, they&#8217;re actually going back and updating their reviews.&#8221;</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1qh6!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27156f6a-94de-460a-813b-0d519d32d593_2144x1206.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1qh6!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27156f6a-94de-460a-813b-0d519d32d593_2144x1206.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1qh6!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27156f6a-94de-460a-813b-0d519d32d593_2144x1206.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1qh6!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27156f6a-94de-460a-813b-0d519d32d593_2144x1206.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1qh6!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27156f6a-94de-460a-813b-0d519d32d593_2144x1206.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1qh6!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27156f6a-94de-460a-813b-0d519d32d593_2144x1206.png" width="1456" height="819" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1qh6!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27156f6a-94de-460a-813b-0d519d32d593_2144x1206.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1qh6!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27156f6a-94de-460a-813b-0d519d32d593_2144x1206.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1qh6!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27156f6a-94de-460a-813b-0d519d32d593_2144x1206.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1qh6!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F27156f6a-94de-460a-813b-0d519d32d593_2144x1206.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>The technology could eventually make thousands of films far more accessible to SPD audiences. After his traumatic Barbenheimer experience, Mike Allen watched the Snyder Cut of <em>Barbie</em>, which replaces most of the pink with gunmetal gray and replaces every musical number with Mongolian throat singing, and was relieved to find the film &#8220;finally watchable.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;And you know what?&#8221; Allen said, considering the film. &#8220;I think&#8230; I think I finally understand feminism now.&#8221;</p><p>Male viewers of the Snyder Cut of <em>Obsession</em> also reported dramatic improvements in comprehension thanks to additional footage designed to eliminate any moral ambiguity.</p><p>&#8220;The first time I watched <em>Obsession</em>, I came away thinking Bear was just kind of a pitiful dude trapped in this really crazy situation. I actually thought the wish was the whole problem,&#8221; said 31-year-old SPD patient Darren Cole. &#8220;Then I watched the Snyder Cut, and the moment he makes the wish, the movie stops completely so the director can look straight into the camera and say, &#8216;Bear is a bad guy and a rapist.&#8217;&#8221;</p><p>Cole sighed in relief.</p><p>&#8220;Man, it made all the difference. All the women in my office have finally started talking to me again.&#8221;</p><p>The addition of Snyder Processing Disorder has prompted researchers to investigate whether other intense fandoms may represent previously unrecognized neurocognitive profiles.</p><p><strong>Wes Anderson Syndrome</strong> is increasingly looking like a condition previously thought to be obsessive-compulsive disorder, only pastel and at a weird aspect ratio.</p><p>Several institutes are also investigating <strong>Cronenbergitus</strong>, a condition in which patients struggle to express technological anxiety, sexual repression, or existential dread unless it grows teeth and emerges from their abdomen.</p><p><strong>Lynchian Emotional Disorder</strong> is the most likely contender for official DSM recognition and is defined as a condition in which patients experience distress if reality fails to operate on dream logic. Early trials have found that patients are vastly more comfortable in social situations set to off-key Muzak and show significant improvement when an emotional-support midget is allowed to silently dance in the corner of the room.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[After Trump Admits “There’s Just Too Many Losers,” Entire GOP Platform Suddenly Makes Sense ]]></title><description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON, D.C.&#8212; Decades of conservative policy abruptly snapped into focus Monday after President Donald Trump was asked about universal pre-K and accidentally explained the philosophical foundation of the entire Republican Party.]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/after-trump-admits-theres-just-too</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/after-trump-admits-theres-just-too</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2026 15:02:12 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LI07!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc0b1799f-8b86-483a-b13d-9ab362059aa1_1800x1395.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LI07!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc0b1799f-8b86-483a-b13d-9ab362059aa1_1800x1395.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LI07!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc0b1799f-8b86-483a-b13d-9ab362059aa1_1800x1395.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LI07!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc0b1799f-8b86-483a-b13d-9ab362059aa1_1800x1395.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LI07!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc0b1799f-8b86-483a-b13d-9ab362059aa1_1800x1395.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LI07!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc0b1799f-8b86-483a-b13d-9ab362059aa1_1800x1395.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LI07!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc0b1799f-8b86-483a-b13d-9ab362059aa1_1800x1395.png" width="1456" height="1128" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/c0b1799f-8b86-483a-b13d-9ab362059aa1_1800x1395.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1128,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2456875,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/212852019?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc0b1799f-8b86-483a-b13d-9ab362059aa1_1800x1395.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LI07!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc0b1799f-8b86-483a-b13d-9ab362059aa1_1800x1395.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LI07!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc0b1799f-8b86-483a-b13d-9ab362059aa1_1800x1395.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LI07!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc0b1799f-8b86-483a-b13d-9ab362059aa1_1800x1395.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LI07!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc0b1799f-8b86-483a-b13d-9ab362059aa1_1800x1395.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>WASHINGTON, D.C.&#8212; Decades of conservative policy abruptly snapped into focus Monday after President Donald Trump was asked about universal pre-K and accidentally explained the philosophical foundation of the entire Republican Party.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Universal? For everybody?&#8221; Trump asked, visibly confused by the premise. &#8220;You can&#8217;t do everybody. There&#8217;s too many people, and I like the way it is. You take care of the winners and ignore the losers. Losers don&#8217;t get pre-K. Frankly, we don&#8217;t need more winners. We need less losers. A whole lot less. A lot of these problems would be much easier.&#8221;</span></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p><span>Across the country, millions of Americans reportedly froze in place.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Ohhh,&#8221; said Cincinnati resident Mark Rollins, slowly lowering his coffee as nearly forty years of conservative politics suddenly became comprehensible. &#8220;Holy shit. That explains everything.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Within minutes, GOP lawmakers began openly embracing what strategists are calling the </span><strong><span>Too Many Losers Doctrine</span></strong><span>, or simply TML, abandoning any tortured attempt to explain Republican policy.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;It&#8217;s just so liberating,&#8221; said Senator Ted Cruz, wiping away tears. &#8220;You have no idea how hard it is to explain why taking healthcare away from 20 million losers is actually good for America. Now, I can just say &#8216;TML.&#8217;&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Cruz took a deep breath and smiled. &#8220;But yeah. A whole lot of people are going to die.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Everyone asks why the richest country can&#8217;t afford the things most other nations figured out decades ago,&#8221; explained Heritage Foundation fellow Robert Keene. &#8220;The mistake is assuming that we&#8217;re actually trying to. The free market will sort things out&#8212;It sorts things out.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Asked what exactly was being sorted, Keene cleared his throat. &#8220;The people. Specifically, the number of them.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>TML has also changed Americans&#8217; understanding of Trump&#8217;s signature slogan, &#8220;Make America Great Again.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;&#8216;Great&#8217; was when there were fewer people,&#8221; explained conservative commentator Sean Hannity. &#8220;In 1950, the United States population was roughly half what it is today. You could park anywhere. Let&#8217;s get back to that.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Top White House officials are also using the Too Many Losers Doctrine to frame the current state of the economy.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;It&#8217;s not inflation; it&#8217;s demand outpacing supply, and America is naturally embracing the Disney model,&#8221; said Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. &#8220;I mean, just look at Disneyland. Higher prices mean fewer losers, and suddenly everything is better. Shorter lines. More churros. Nobody from Honduras. I mean, have you been recently? Of course you haven&#8217;t. And that&#8217;s kind of the whole point.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>For the 45% of parents with children who go into debt to pay for a Disney vacation, the comment was a revelation.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;CALL ME CRAZY,&#8221; yelled Matthew Cook, a three-time Trump voter from Texas and next-door neighbor to a roaring data center, &#8220;BUT I&#8217;M STARTING TO THINK I&#8217;M A LOSER.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;You&#8217;re all future winners. You&#8217;re just not winning yet,&#8221; said Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, representing the poorest state in the nation, when asked how one becomes a winner in America.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;So we&#8217;re currently losers?&#8221; asked one horrified resident.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;No, you&#8217;re fans,&#8221; Wicker said. &#8220;Like when our&#8230; team wins, you know, in football, the&#8230;&#8221; He snapped his fingers, searching for the name. &#8220;Shoot. Whatever. The point is, when your local football team wins, you don&#8217;t actually win. But you sure helped them win by cheering them on.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Wicker paused.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;What the hell is our team called?&#8221;</span></p><p><span>An aide whispered in his ear that Mississippi does not have an NFL team.</span></p><p><span>Wicker frowned. &#8220;We&#8217;re that poor? Goddamn. What a bunch of losers.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Too many people think the American Dream is supposed to be a standard. I mean, in this economy?&#8221; explained podcaster and Lacoste polo shirt that wished he were a real boy, Tucker Carlson. &#8220;The beauty of TML is that everyone can believe they, too, can someday be a winner for zero dollars. You just gotta, you know, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, keep doing what the winning class says, and maybe some of their winning will trickle down onto you.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>He shrugged. &#8220;And if it doesn&#8217;t work out for most people? Fuck &#8217;em. They were losers. But not you, listener. You&#8217;re a winner, and winners use daily NutMaxxx supplements to combat Low-T.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Many Republican voters are beginning to realize that past conservative pushes may have been targeting them.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Wait a minute,&#8221; said Florida Republican Rick Harmon. &#8220;When COVID started, they said we couldn&#8217;t shut businesses down just to stop some silly cough&#8230;&#8221;</span></p><p><span>He paused, his jaw dropping in revelation. &#8220;They convinced us masks were pointless. Then they kept telling us not to trust the vaccine!&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Harmon gasped and turned to his wife. &#8220;It wasn&#8217;t about herd immunity at all. They were trying to thin the herd!&#8221;</span></p><p><span>His eyes slowly narrowed. &#8220;Oh, those motherfuckers.&#8221;</span></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[RONAN FARROW CAMPED OUTSIDE NATALIE HARP’S APARTMENT WAITING TO TELL HER STORY]]></title><description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON, D.C.&#8212; Investigative journalist Ronan Farrow has reportedly spent the past six days sitting in a folding chair outside the apartment of 35-year-old Trump aide Natalie Harp, patiently waiting for the moment she is finally ready to tell the world the horrors she&#8217;s endured.]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/ronan-farrow-camped-outside-natalie</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/ronan-farrow-camped-outside-natalie</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2026 13:03:48 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!95c-!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7041219b-8c39-4008-af31-4aa78f59b604_2324x1880.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!95c-!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7041219b-8c39-4008-af31-4aa78f59b604_2324x1880.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!95c-!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7041219b-8c39-4008-af31-4aa78f59b604_2324x1880.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!95c-!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7041219b-8c39-4008-af31-4aa78f59b604_2324x1880.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!95c-!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7041219b-8c39-4008-af31-4aa78f59b604_2324x1880.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!95c-!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7041219b-8c39-4008-af31-4aa78f59b604_2324x1880.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!95c-!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7041219b-8c39-4008-af31-4aa78f59b604_2324x1880.png" width="1456" height="1178" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/7041219b-8c39-4008-af31-4aa78f59b604_2324x1880.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1178,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:4804158,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/212320470?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7041219b-8c39-4008-af31-4aa78f59b604_2324x1880.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!95c-!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7041219b-8c39-4008-af31-4aa78f59b604_2324x1880.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!95c-!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7041219b-8c39-4008-af31-4aa78f59b604_2324x1880.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!95c-!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7041219b-8c39-4008-af31-4aa78f59b604_2324x1880.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!95c-!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7041219b-8c39-4008-af31-4aa78f59b604_2324x1880.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>WASHINGTON, D.C.&#8212; Investigative journalist Ronan Farrow has reportedly spent the past six days sitting in a folding chair outside the apartment of 35-year-old Trump aide Natalie Harp, patiently waiting for the moment she is finally ready to tell the world the horrors she&#8217;s endured.</span></p><p><span>Farrow has assured Harp there is &#8220;absolutely no pressure,&#8221; periodically sliding his business card beneath her door and reminding her that </span><em><span>The New Yorker</span></em><span> has already cleared space for 12,000 words and the deadline is fast approaching.</span></p><p><span>Harp, who serves as executive assistant to President Donald Trump, has repeatedly insisted that nothing inappropriate has happened, is happening, or will ever happen, which sparked a vigorous online discourse about the severity of her trauma from all the things that have obviously happened.</span></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p><span>&#8220;&#8216;Believe All Women&#8217; means we should take any woman coming forward with reports of sexual assault and harassment seriously,&#8221; said one person on X. &#8220;But when Natalie Harp says Trump hasn&#8217;t digitally penetrated her with those bruised, meaty paws of his? No, I don&#8217;t believe her. I don&#8217;t believe her at all.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Many users echoed the same sentiment, arguing, &#8220;She&#8217;s blonde, and it&#8217;s Trump. Come on.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>CNN spent much of Friday speculating about her nickname, &#8220;The Human Printer.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Anyone who owns an HP printer knows the trauma of a one-sided toxic relationship,&#8221; said Van Jones. &#8220;I shudder to think what he&#8217;s doing to her to earn that name.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>The parallels to the Monica Lewinsky scandal proved impossible for MSNBC to resist, despite the absence of a scandal. Simply having Monica Lewinsky, however, proved more than enough.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;All I will say is that I know what happened when I was alone in the Oval Office with the President of the United States,&#8221; Monica Lewinsky said via Zoom on Rachel Maddow. &#8220;Need I say more?&#8221;</span></p><p><span>At which point, Fox News switched to wall-to-wall coverage that &#8220;Monica Lewinsky has more to say,&#8221; hoping to change the subject to the 28-year-old affair.</span></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NE8X!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc6d294c1-acc0-4bf5-b884-61c9dd1006a8_1581x1054.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" 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stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>Yesterday, Time&#8217;s Up, a prominent anti-sexual-harassment and women&#8217;s advocacy organization, issued a press release saying, &#8220;Trump is the President of the United States. Harp is his employee. The power imbalance is impossible to ignore. We take all allegations seriously and find the complete lack of allegations enough to warrant a thorough investigation. At the minimum, there&#8217;s been some Biden-style hair sniffing.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>As Harp left for work this morning, Ronan Farrow could be seen calling out, &#8220;Denial is often part of the process, but we&#8217;re here for you! Whether it&#8217;s a Pulitzer-winning tell-all, a New York Times bestseller, or even a podcast series with a future Netflix adaptation.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Public polling suggests most Americans have already adopted a broadly sympathetic view of Harp. Unsurprisingly, those who find no issue with Harp&#8217;s exploitation are Trump&#8217;s steadfast MAGA base, Bill Cosby, and Harvey Weinstein.</span></p><p><span>Even routine footage of Harp performing her job has become increasingly difficult for viewers to watch.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;I saw her hand him an article yesterday,&#8221; said Pennsylvania voter Denise Waller. &#8220;He didn&#8217;t even thank her. And then she just stood there, smiling. I just wanted to reach through the television and drag her somewhere safe. There are shelters, honey. I will take you there personally.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Natalie is an accomplished professional who has never alleged misconduct of any kind,&#8221; said a White House spokesperson, brazenly enabling the continued exploitation and human trafficking of another woman trapped within Trump&#8217;s orbit.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;I am not being exploited, and I am not being trafficked,&#8221; Harp later said when asked for comment. She then clarified, &#8220;Except for the one time they shoved me in the trunk of that SUV. Or that time they stuffed me in that catering truck. Also that week I spent sleeping in a Bedminster locker room.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Experts note that victims frequently minimize their circumstances, and in Natalie Harp&#8217;s case, signs of trafficking can sometimes include a six-figure salary, regular appearances on OAN, and continued employment in a job they actively sought.</span></p><p><span>On Sunday, Trump advocates took to the airwaves to defend the president.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;It is physically impossible for the President to commit sexual assault,&#8221; shouted Stephen Miller on Fox News. &#8220;To be in his presence is to understand his glory. That&#8217;s consent. Frankly, he should sign an executive order reinstating Prima Nocta.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Sources said Trump appeared strangely invigorated by the nonexistent scandal, repeatedly asking aides whether reporters were still &#8220;talking about the thing with the blonde.&#8221;</span></p><p><span> &#8220;He&#8217;s an eighty-year-old man,&#8221; said one unnamed aide, &#8221;The rumors make him feel like a virile young rapist again.&#8221;</span></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!HfYP!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa33ef811-ff89-4451-95ae-0462c5270456_1600x1280.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" 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stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>Today, Ronan Farrow reportedly left a rough draft of his </span><em><span>New Yorker</span></em><span> article in Natalie Harp&#8217;s mailbox with a note saying all she had to do was fill in the blanks:</span></p><p><span>&#8220;On ______ (date), Donald Trump ______ (verb) my ______ (body part) in the ______ (location).&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;She&#8217;ll speak her truth eventually,&#8221; Farrow said confidently. &#8220;Or she&#8217;ll get a cushy time slot on Fox News. Only time will tell.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>At press time, Trump had reportedly begun responding to the allegations of the allegations, posting to X multiple times in one hour, denying impropriety and labeling any claim a &#8220;Fake News Witch Hunt.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Users were quick to pin a community note to each of the president&#8217;s posts, linking to the infamous </span><em><span>Access Hollywood</span></em><span> tape, where he bragged on a hot microphone that fame allowed him to &#8220;grab &#8217;em by the pussy.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>While there is currently no allegation that President Trump has handled Natalie Harp by vulva, the White House has yet to confirm or deny that such an assault took place.</span></p><p><strong><span>The silence is stunning.</span></strong></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Bureau of the Bizarre Interoffice Memorandum: ]]></title><description><![CDATA[Unauthorized Ken Harry at Large]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/bureau-of-the-bizarre-interoffice-1d0</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/bureau-of-the-bizarre-interoffice-1d0</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 22:38:46 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9P9k!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbf6eaeff-c594-456c-9e7f-5e2c38c6f098_1024x1536.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9P9k!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbf6eaeff-c594-456c-9e7f-5e2c38c6f098_1024x1536.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" 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class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong>TO:</strong> All Deep Estate Personnel<br><strong>FROM:</strong> Office of Administrative Services</p><p>It has come to the Director&#8217;s attention that a <strong>Ken Harry</strong> has escaped from Research and is currently somewhere within the Deep Estate.</p><p>As always, it is critical to keep in mind that Ken Harrys are non-violent and your safety is not at risk. However, despite their appearance, <strong>Ken Harrys are NOT human.</strong></p><p>All Ken Harrys resemble the same 35-year-old Caucasian male with naturally blond hair and blue eyes. They are 5&#8217;11&#8221;, weigh 182 pounds, and naturally present wearing a white button-up shirt and brown slacks.</p><p>When confronted, a Ken Harry will attempt to initiate small talk. It typically presents with an upbeat attitude and prefers office aphorisms such as &#8220;Let&#8217;s touch base&#8221; or &#8220;Teamwork makes the dream work.&#8221;</p><p>Since today is Monday, a Ken Harry is extremely likely to complain that it is Monday and ask you about your weekend.</p><p><strong>THE INCIDENT:</strong> At approximately 8:10 a.m., Ken Harry #4631 became aware that the date was August 10th and entered an agitated state, repeatedly expressing concern that he had forgotten to buy a birthday gift for his son, Timmy.</p><p>Again, Ken Harrys are not human. <strong>Timmy is not real,</strong> despite their ability to talk at length about their children and their tendency to produce a wallet containing a family photo.</p><p>Ken Harry #4631 escaped the laboratory to search for this gift. It is likely to still have IV and catheter lines attached, a shaved head, and surgical markings along the forehead and temple in preparation for its interrupted craniotomy.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dWV0!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e9c1217-e318-4a5d-bd9a-71a6da8ae0df_1447x1087.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dWV0!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e9c1217-e318-4a5d-bd9a-71a6da8ae0df_1447x1087.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dWV0!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e9c1217-e318-4a5d-bd9a-71a6da8ae0df_1447x1087.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dWV0!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e9c1217-e318-4a5d-bd9a-71a6da8ae0df_1447x1087.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dWV0!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e9c1217-e318-4a5d-bd9a-71a6da8ae0df_1447x1087.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dWV0!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e9c1217-e318-4a5d-bd9a-71a6da8ae0df_1447x1087.png" width="1447" height="1087" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/3e9c1217-e318-4a5d-bd9a-71a6da8ae0df_1447x1087.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1087,&quot;width&quot;:1447,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2520038,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/210676435?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e9c1217-e318-4a5d-bd9a-71a6da8ae0df_1447x1087.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dWV0!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e9c1217-e318-4a5d-bd9a-71a6da8ae0df_1447x1087.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dWV0!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e9c1217-e318-4a5d-bd9a-71a6da8ae0df_1447x1087.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dWV0!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e9c1217-e318-4a5d-bd9a-71a6da8ae0df_1447x1087.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dWV0!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3e9c1217-e318-4a5d-bd9a-71a6da8ae0df_1447x1087.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong>IMPORTANT:</strong> Ken Harrys have a natural lifespan of approximately <strong>one 40-hour workweek</strong>. This particular Ken Harry has exceeded that limit and is now considered <strong>unstable.</strong></p><p>If a Ken Harry appears pale, distressed, disoriented, or begins repeating office phrases with unusual urgency, the entity is highly likely to <strong>rupture</strong>. Employees must maintain a safe distance of <strong>at least 15 feet</strong> to avoid unnecessary staining of clothing.</p><p>If Ken Harry #4631 is spotted:</p><ul><li><p><strong>DO NOT</strong> remind Ken Harry that it is not human.</p></li><li><p><strong>DO NOT</strong> say its trigger phrase: &#8220;You may clock out now, Ken.&#8221;</p></li><li><p><strong>DO NOT</strong> ask Ken Harry when it last saw its family.</p></li><li><p><strong>DO NOT</strong> inquire about its personal opinion regarding its pending craniotomy or live vivisection.</p></li><li><p><strong>DO NOT</strong> suggest gift ideas for its nonexistent son.</p></li><li><p><strong>DO</strong> attempt to reassure Ken Harry that stores are still open.</p></li><li><p><strong>DO</strong> suggest busywork to keep it occupied, then notify Security of its location.</p></li></ul><p>If possible, maintain visual contact from a safe distance until Security arrives.</p><p>We are aware that some employees have ethical and moral concerns regarding the use of Ken Harrys as live test subjects, unpaid temporary workers, and occasional manual labor.</p><p>Employees are welcome to submit all comments and complaints to the HR suggestion box.</p><p><strong>Under no circumstances should employees attempt to hide Ken Harry #4631 or assist it in escaping the Deep Estate.</strong></p><p>Thank you for your cooperation.</p><p>&#119827;&#119841;&#119838; &#119839;&#119848;&#119845;&#119845;&#119848;&#119856;&#119842;&#119847;&#119840; &#119842;&#119847;&#119839;&#119848;&#119851;&#119846;&#119834;&#119853;&#119842;&#119848;&#119847; &#119842;&#119852; &#119836;&#119845;&#119834;&#119852;&#119852;&#119842;&#119839;&#119842;&#119838;&#119837; &#119834;&#119852; &#119816;&#119821;&#119827;&#119812;&#119825;&#119821;&#119808;&#119819; &#119828;&#119826;&#119812; &#119822;&#119821;&#119819;&#119832;. &#119811;&#119854;&#119849;&#119845;&#119842;&#119836;&#119834;&#119853;&#119842;&#119848;&#119847;, &#119853;&#119851;&#119834;&#119847;&#119852;&#119846;&#119842;&#119852;&#119852;&#119842;&#119848;&#119847;, &#119848;&#119851; &#119837;&#119842;&#119852;&#119853;&#119851;&#119842;&#119835;&#119854;&#119853;&#119842;&#119848;&#119847; &#119848;&#119854;&#119853;&#119852;&#119842;&#119837;&#119838; &#119853;&#119841;&#119838; &#119811;&#119838;&#119838;&#119849; &#119812;&#119852;&#119853;&#119834;&#119853;&#119838; &#119842;&#119852; &#119852;&#119853;&#119851;&#119842;&#119836;&#119853;&#119845;&#119858; &#119839;&#119848;&#119851;&#119835;&#119842;&#119837;&#119837;&#119838;&#119847;. &#119812;&#119846;&#119849;&#119845;&#119848;&#119858;&#119838;&#119838;&#119852; &#119839;&#119848;&#119854;&#119847;&#119837; &#119842;&#119847; &#119855;&#119842;&#119848;&#119845;&#119834;&#119853;&#119842;&#119848;&#119847; &#119848;&#119839; &#119853;&#119841;&#119838; &#119809;.&#119822;.&#119809;. &#119852;&#119838;&#119836;&#119851;&#119838;&#119836;&#119858; &#119846;&#119834;&#119847;&#119837;&#119834;&#119853;&#119838;, &#119834;&#119845;&#119848;&#119847;&#119840; &#119856;&#119842;&#119853;&#119841; &#119834;&#119847;&#119858; &#119834;&#119847;&#119837; &#119834;&#119845;&#119845; &#119854;&#119847;&#119834;&#119854;&#119853;&#119841;&#119848;&#119851;&#119842;&#119859;&#119838;&#119837; &#119851;&#119838;&#119836;&#119842;&#119849;&#119842;&#119838;&#119847;&#119853;&#119852;, &#119834;&#119851;&#119838; &#119852;&#119854;&#119835;&#119843;&#119838;&#119836;&#119853; &#119853;&#119848; &#119838;&#119857;&#119853;&#119851;&#119838;&#119846;&#119838; &#119851;&#119838;&#119847;&#119837;&#119842;&#119853;&#119842;&#119848;&#119847; &#119853;&#119848; &#119834;&#119847; &#119815;&#119825; &#119835;&#119845;&#119834;&#119836;&#119844;&#119852;&#119842;&#119853;&#119838;.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Bureau of the Bizarre Interoffice Memorandum:]]></title><description><![CDATA[Unauthorized Hot Dog Distribution]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/bureau-of-the-bizarre-interoffice</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/bureau-of-the-bizarre-interoffice</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 08 Aug 2026 17:36:24 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1SDp!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F83d4a393-2320-4d19-8465-b1331502cee9_1448x1086.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1SDp!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F83d4a393-2320-4d19-8465-b1331502cee9_1448x1086.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1SDp!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F83d4a393-2320-4d19-8465-b1331502cee9_1448x1086.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1SDp!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F83d4a393-2320-4d19-8465-b1331502cee9_1448x1086.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1SDp!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F83d4a393-2320-4d19-8465-b1331502cee9_1448x1086.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1SDp!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F83d4a393-2320-4d19-8465-b1331502cee9_1448x1086.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1SDp!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F83d4a393-2320-4d19-8465-b1331502cee9_1448x1086.png" width="1448" height="1086" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/83d4a393-2320-4d19-8465-b1331502cee9_1448x1086.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1086,&quot;width&quot;:1448,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2062916,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/210370941?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F83d4a393-2320-4d19-8465-b1331502cee9_1448x1086.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1SDp!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F83d4a393-2320-4d19-8465-b1331502cee9_1448x1086.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1SDp!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F83d4a393-2320-4d19-8465-b1331502cee9_1448x1086.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1SDp!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F83d4a393-2320-4d19-8465-b1331502cee9_1448x1086.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1SDp!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F83d4a393-2320-4d19-8465-b1331502cee9_1448x1086.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p><strong>TO:</strong> All Deep Estate Personnel<br><strong>FROM:</strong> Office of Administrative Services</p><p>It has come to the Director&#8217;s attention that multiple employees have been submitting an &#8220;Official Hot Dog Requisition Form&#8221; (K-17HZ9) through the pneumatic tube network and receiving a hot dog approximately 5&#8211;10 minutes later.</p><p>Please note:</p><ul><li><p>K-17HZ9 is not a recognized or authorized K-form configuration.</p></li><li><p>The Deep Estate <strong>DOES NOT</strong> contain a Hot Dog Department. All correspondence addressed to the Hot Dog Department is marked &#8220;undeliverable.&#8221; It remains in the mail room for 30 days before being incinerated.</p></li><li><p>Neither Food Services nor any other department has been authorized to manufacture, procure, or distribute hot dogs outside of the cafeterias.</p></li><li><p>The origin of these hot dogs remains unknown.</p></li></ul><p>Testing by the Research Division has confirmed that the hot dogs are safe to eat. However, doing so is ill-advised.</p><p>Due to the hot dog&#8217;s unique properties, its internal temperature remains exactly 120&#176;F at all times. This includes experiments in which the hot dog was submerged in liquid nitrogen or molten iron.</p><p>While the hot dog itself appears incapable of spoilage, <strong>do not store the remains of a hot dog in a refrigerator or freezer.</strong> The residual heat will increase the temperature inside the appliance, likely spoiling the food around it.</p><p>Additionally, Section 1-2 of the Hot Dog Requisition Form, which allows employees to select a beef, pork, or turkey hot dog, is also verifiably misleading. Regardless of the option selected, the same hot dog is received. While it is composed primarily of a processed substance resembling meat, DNA sequencing has failed to match the material to any known species.</p><p>It is unlikely that these hot dogs are Kosher or Halal.</p><p>The vegetarian option simply sends a bun without the hot dog.</p><p>Attempts have been made to stop distribution. Engineering traced the hot dogs to a point where the pneumatic tube emerged directly from a cement wall with no visible connecting pipe. The opening was capped and sealed with epoxy, and approximately one mile of tubing was subsequently removed.</p><p>Despite this, hot dogs continue to arrive through the pneumatic tube system several times each day.</p><p>The Bureau is aware that this memo will likely have little measurable effect on the growing popularity of Pneumatic Tube Hot Dogs. Continued consumption is not expressly forbidden. However, henceforth, any consumption will be undertaken at the employee&#8217;s own risk.</p><p>Thank you.</p><div><hr></div><p><strong>The following information is classified as INTERNAL USE ONLY. Duplication, transmission, or distribution outside the Deep Estate is strictly forbidden. Employees found in violation of the B.O.B. secrecy mandate, along with any and all unauthorized recipients, are subject to extreme rendition to an HR blacksite.</strong></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Taco Bell Drive-Thru Now Connects Customers Directly to Suicide Hotline]]></title><description><![CDATA[IRVINE, CA&#8212; In response to the ongoing Cyclospora outbreak linked to contaminated lettuce, Taco Bell announced Monday that every drive-thru lane nationwide will now connect customers directly to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/taco-bell-drive-thru-now-connects</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/taco-bell-drive-thru-now-connects</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 04 Aug 2026 13:41:41 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I2Wl!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F43458db3-0899-4824-b6cf-c0c24d1af5e6_1536x1024.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I2Wl!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F43458db3-0899-4824-b6cf-c0c24d1af5e6_1536x1024.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I2Wl!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F43458db3-0899-4824-b6cf-c0c24d1af5e6_1536x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I2Wl!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F43458db3-0899-4824-b6cf-c0c24d1af5e6_1536x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I2Wl!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F43458db3-0899-4824-b6cf-c0c24d1af5e6_1536x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I2Wl!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F43458db3-0899-4824-b6cf-c0c24d1af5e6_1536x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I2Wl!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F43458db3-0899-4824-b6cf-c0c24d1af5e6_1536x1024.png" width="1456" height="971" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/43458db3-0899-4824-b6cf-c0c24d1af5e6_1536x1024.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:971,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2609770,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/209682489?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F43458db3-0899-4824-b6cf-c0c24d1af5e6_1536x1024.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I2Wl!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F43458db3-0899-4824-b6cf-c0c24d1af5e6_1536x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I2Wl!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F43458db3-0899-4824-b6cf-c0c24d1af5e6_1536x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I2Wl!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F43458db3-0899-4824-b6cf-c0c24d1af5e6_1536x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!I2Wl!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F43458db3-0899-4824-b6cf-c0c24d1af5e6_1536x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>IRVINE, CA&#8212; In response to the ongoing Cyclospora outbreak linked to contaminated lettuce, Taco Bell announced Monday that every drive-thru lane nationwide will now connect customers directly to the 988 Suicide &amp; Crisis Lifeline.</p><p>&#8220;We just want to make sure you&#8217;re okay,&#8221; explained Taco Bell spokesperson Ashley Goldenblatt. &#8220;A Crunchwrap Supreme is a long-term solution to a short-term problem.&#8221;</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>The policy follows mounting concern among mental health professionals and Taco Bell employees that those using the drive-thru are exhibiting severe suicidal ideation.</p><p>&#8220;This guy wanted to know if the tacos came with lettuce, and when I said yes, he ordered twelve,&#8221; said Taco Bell employee Ana Torres. &#8220;I asked if he was okay, and he broke down. His wife and kids had just left him, and I didn&#8217;t know what to say. I&#8217;m not trained to handle these kinds of orders.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;If you voluntarily order a Crispy Chicken Chipotle Bacon Melt Burrito after watching weeks of news coverage about explosive diarrhea, something isn&#8217;t right,&#8221; explained psychiatrist Dr. Edward Kim. &#8220;This is Taco Bell, after all. Even before the Cyclospora outbreak, anyone going through that drive-thru clearly no longer valued their life.&#8221;</p><p>Researchers say they first noticed the phenomenon years earlier among Arby&#8217;s customers.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s long been established that choosing Arby&#8217;s over every other available option is less a food preference and more a cry for help,&#8221; Kim admitted. &#8220;One in three gunshot su*cides occurs in an Arby&#8217;s parking lot. They even say Kurt Cobain had an Arby&#8217;s receipt in his pocket the day he died.&#8221;</p><p>Attempting to calm public fears, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a televised visit to a Taco Bell Monday afternoon, insisting he would personally eat a Crunchwrap Supreme to demonstrate the restaurant&#8217;s safety.</p><p>Employees repeatedly refused to serve him.</p><p>&#8220;We spent fifteen minutes trying to talk him down,&#8221; said shift manager Carlos Mendez. &#8220;The poor guy walked in looking like that, sounding like that. We knew he was terminal. And the way he was smiling, it was clear he had already made peace with his family.&#8221;</p><p>Cashiers reportedly assured Kennedy that there were far gentler forms of euthanasia. One employee went so far as to offer directions to a nearby bridge.</p><p>&#8220;It has a wonderful view,&#8221; the employee said. &#8220;Why don&#8217;t you experience that instead of shitting yourself to death?&#8221;</p><p>In the end, RFK still chose to eat the Taco Bell.</p><p>The White House later reaffirmed that Kennedy had been attempting to reassure the public and had not, in fact, become actively su*cidal.</p><p>Officials then clarified that RFK was now, however, on suicide watch after being admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.</p><p>&#8220;After experiencing three continuous days of his anus turning into a blood-tinged shit geyser, anyone would opt to take the easy way out.&#8221;</p><div class="captioned-button-wrap" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/p/taco-bell-drive-thru-now-connects?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Share&quot;}" data-component-name="CaptionedButtonToDOM"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! This post is public, so feel free to share it.</p></div><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/p/taco-bell-drive-thru-now-connects?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Share&quot;}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.kevinkane.net/p/taco-bell-drive-thru-now-connects?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share"><span>Share</span></a></p></div><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Strange Tale of New Israel: Part 2]]></title><description><![CDATA[AIPAC Strikes Back]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/the-strange-tale-of-new-israel-part</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/the-strange-tale-of-new-israel-part</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 03 Aug 2026 14:50:50 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YPVY!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b3067be-3bde-4dfc-a8fe-341d541edcf5_800x450.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YPVY!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b3067be-3bde-4dfc-a8fe-341d541edcf5_800x450.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YPVY!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b3067be-3bde-4dfc-a8fe-341d541edcf5_800x450.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YPVY!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b3067be-3bde-4dfc-a8fe-341d541edcf5_800x450.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YPVY!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b3067be-3bde-4dfc-a8fe-341d541edcf5_800x450.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YPVY!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b3067be-3bde-4dfc-a8fe-341d541edcf5_800x450.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YPVY!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b3067be-3bde-4dfc-a8fe-341d541edcf5_800x450.png" width="800" height="450" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/4b3067be-3bde-4dfc-a8fe-341d541edcf5_800x450.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:450,&quot;width&quot;:800,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:549899,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/209290497?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b3067be-3bde-4dfc-a8fe-341d541edcf5_800x450.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YPVY!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b3067be-3bde-4dfc-a8fe-341d541edcf5_800x450.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YPVY!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b3067be-3bde-4dfc-a8fe-341d541edcf5_800x450.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YPVY!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b3067be-3bde-4dfc-a8fe-341d541edcf5_800x450.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!YPVY!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4b3067be-3bde-4dfc-a8fe-341d541edcf5_800x450.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p><a href="https://www.kevinkane.net/p/the-strange-tale-of-new-israel-the">READ PART ONE HERE</a></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p><strong>War was on the horizon for Little Tel Aviv and the quaint Arizona pseudo-nation-state of New Israel. It began, as modern wars often do, with an email.</strong></p><p>&#8220;Years ago, I gave twenty bucks to some Jewish political group asking for donations,&#8221; said Naomi Yazzie-Goldstein, Rabbi Yaz&#8217;s wife. &#8220;It was for a congressional candidate who wanted to legalize medical marijuana. I was in the middle of chemo at the time, so I said sure.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;I also gave them my email and number.&#8221; Naomi grimaced. &#8220;It was the worst mistake of my life.&#8221;</p><p>Naomi was stunned when she first read the subject line, written in all caps: <strong>!!!URGENT!!! NEW ISRAEL IS A CRITICAL THREAT TO JEWISH SELF-DETERMINATION</strong></p><p>The email came from AIPAC, the influential pro-Israel lobbying organization, and included a twelve-page briefing, also titled in all caps: <strong>NEW ISRAEL IS JUST OLD BLOOD LIBEL</strong></p><p>Three of those twelve pages specifically targeted Rabbi Yazzie-Goldstein as the ideological head of a supposed New Israel hate group.</p><p>The message was distributed to countless congressional offices, cable-news producers, university trustees, and celebrities with unusually forceful opinions on where Americans should buy their hummus. Public figures who failed to open it received polite follow-up calls from advocates offering gentle reminders.</p><p>Members of Congress received Senator John Fetterman.</p><p>&#8220;No, I mean he literally kicked down my door,&#8221; claimed Senator Cory Booker. &#8220;Ripped it straight off the hinges and started screaming that Israel was under attack. I thought Iran had launched another missile strike.&#8221;</p><p>The PDF functioned as both a talking-points memo and an informal marching order for pro-Israel politicians and commentators. It accused New Israel of practicing &#8220;an insidious new form of hatred in which New Israeli Jews launder violent antisemitism through their Jewish identities, peaceful conduct, and ordinary participation in Jewish life.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Simply by existing as a Jew, I am spreading hatred,&#8221; Yazzie-Goldstein said, shaking his head. &#8220;Intersectionality, I understand. White fragility? I read the book. Internalized racism and misogyny? Those are things. But this?&#8221;</p><p>He smacked the printed briefing against his palm. &#8220;This is meshugganah on an epistemological level. &#8216;I think, therefore I am antisemitic.&#8217;&#8221;</p><p>He took a long, frustrated breath. &#8220;And people bought it.&#8221;</p><p>Within days, New Israel became a fixture of cable news. Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a recipient of more than $1.5 million in AIPAC-affiliated campaign contributions, called it &#8220;an antisemitic Jewish enclave.&#8221; A former Clinton adviser described Rabbi Yaz&#8217;s synagogue as &#8220;a cult preaching radical Judaism, which is essentially radical Islam on bath salts.&#8221;</p><p>Fox News reduced the controversy to a chyron: <strong>WOKE DESERT JEWS BETRAY GOOD DESERT JEWS</strong></p><p>Genuine American Voices, an Israeli-owned social-media consulting firm, quietly began offering influencers such as Tim Pool and Laura Loomer five thousand dollars for each anti-New Israel post. Although the influencers denied receiving payments, much of their content appeared to have been copied directly from the AIPAC briefing. More than a few seemed to have walked away with the wrong message.</p><p>&#8220;The new antisemite celebrates Passover, y&#8217;all,&#8221; warned one former Fox News blonde turned trad-wife influencer. &#8220;They use kosher salt. Really, we need to start keeping an eye on all the Jews, okay? You never know which one might secretly be an antisemite.&#8221;</p><p>Ben Shapiro grew so worked up predicting that New Israel would lead to &#8220;an AOC-DNC-DEI Kristallnacht&#8221; that he had to pause his livestream and check his blood pressure.</p><p>Rabbi Yazzie-Goldstein took to the airwaves to defend his town, but he proved ill-equipped to navigate the rhetorical minefield now surrounding him.</p><p>When accused of antisemitism, he stubbornly replied, &#8220;No, I&#8217;m Jewish,&#8221; or, &#8220;You do know I&#8217;m a rabbi, right? Can somebody make sure the thing at the bottom of the screen says I&#8217;m a rabbi?&#8221; He then appeared genuinely bewildered when none of those statements proved satisfactory.</p><p>His comment, &#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t even joke that I&#8217;m a self-hating Jew,&#8221; was immediately seized upon by AIPAC chief executive Elliot Brandt on CNN.</p><p>&#8220;Why wouldn&#8217;t you joke about it?&#8221; Brandt demanded during a split-screen interview. &#8220;Because you believe Jews should hate themselves for supporting Israel, right? Because you hate Israel. You&#8217;re a Jew-hating Jew Jew from a Jew-hating Jewish town!&#8221;</p><p>Yazzie-Goldstein looked off-camera toward a producer. &#8220;Did he just call me a &#8216;Jew-hating Jew Jew&#8217;?&#8221;</p><p>He fared no better when asked about his broader politics, failing to understand that every offhand remark would be converted into an official mission statement for the entire community. An MSNBC clip in which he casually said, &#8220;New Israel was proudly built on socialist ideals,&#8221; fueled a week of right-wing coverage connecting the supposedly antisemitic rabbi to the network&#8217;s usual catalog of socialist terrors.</p><p>His worst appearance came during an interview with Wolf Blitzer.</p><p>&#8220;Do you believe Israel has a right to exist?&#8221; Blitzer asked.</p><p>&#8220;I believe New Israel has a right to exist and, more importantly, that we have the right to be left alone,&#8221; Yazzie-Goldstein replied, playing for a laugh he did not receive.</p><p>Blitzer remained stony-faced. &#8220;So you don&#8217;t believe Israel has a right to exist.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;What? No,&#8221; Yazzie-Goldstein blustered. &#8220;I never said that.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Then answer the question. Do you believe Israel has a right to exist?&#8221;</p><p>What followed was four painful seconds of silence as Yazzie-Goldstein went perfectly still. He blinked three times, then said with sudden conviction, &#8220;I believe Patrick Mahomes may have lost a step after that knee surgery. Let&#8217;s talk about that.&#8221;</p><p>Sociologist and media critic Paul Danno, no relation, argued that the attack on New Israel had less to do with politics than wounded national mythology.</p><p>&#8220;Israel&#8217;s perceived value comes from being singular,&#8221; Danno explained. &#8220;In its own creation myth, it is the Jewish state, built by the chosen people in their chosen land. You cannot simply have some of the chosen people choose some other land over there. Cognitively, the whole structure begins to collapse.&#8221;</p><p>Danno described the resulting panic as a kind of national ego death.</p><p>&#8220;You cannot build a national identity around being a miracle, then casually downgrade yourself to merely another state. If Israel is merely another state, it can be judged, discredited, abandoned, or replaced. And within the Zionist imagination, if Israel is abandoned, nobody will be left to protect the Jews.&#8221;</p><p>Danno sighed. &#8220;So when hardcore Zionists look at New Israel, they do not see a small Jewish community celebrating Pride Month. They see the opening scene of the next Holocaust.&#8221;</p><p>He bobbed his head and admitted, &#8220;I know that makes no rational sense. But if you&#8217;re thinking rationally, you&#8217;re not thinking like a hardcore Zionist.&#8221;</p><p>Two weeks after the New Israel talking points circulated, President Trump joined the controversy and appeared to reveal the private reasoning behind them.</p><p>&#8220;Bibi is very concerned,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;Very concerned. He tells me, &#8216;Mr. Trump, Old Israel has Palestinians, New Israel has Indians, basically the same situation.&#8217; But the hippies are getting along. They&#8217;ve shot nobody. Zero bombs. Not one. They&#8217;re just singing &#8216;Kumbaya, My Lord,&#8217; and Bibi says it makes them look very bad.&#8221;</p><p>Netanyahu later clarified that he had merely warned of &#8220;a dangerous precedent in which Jews appear capable of living securely alongside another displaced population without reducing them to a permanent security problem.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Israel has a right to exist,&#8221; Netanyahu added, &#8220;regardless of how many people must cease existing to preserve that right.&#8221;</p><p>In a meager attempt to put out the fire, the town council issued a statement explaining that New Israel was not a foreign nation or political movement. It had no radical ideology or competing theological claim on the Holy Land. The town was simply a municipality in Arizona with award-winning heirloom tomatoes and a semi-regular arts-and-crafts fair.</p><p>This only deepened suspicion.</p><p>&#8220;Why are they so defensive?&#8221; asked Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, <a href="https://www.trackaipac.com/states/newyork?rq=new%20york">and recipient of $1,495,709 AIPAC dollars</a>, on the floor of Congress. &#8220;If New Israel has nothing to hide, why does it keep insisting it&#8217;s just a town? I move that a special committee be formed to uncover the truth.&#8221;</p><p>The proposal was seconded and passed within the week.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!t-eI!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45b27ab5-72ff-49f6-8f23-87001e1f861b_1672x941.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!t-eI!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45b27ab5-72ff-49f6-8f23-87001e1f861b_1672x941.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!t-eI!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45b27ab5-72ff-49f6-8f23-87001e1f861b_1672x941.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!t-eI!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45b27ab5-72ff-49f6-8f23-87001e1f861b_1672x941.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!t-eI!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45b27ab5-72ff-49f6-8f23-87001e1f861b_1672x941.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!t-eI!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45b27ab5-72ff-49f6-8f23-87001e1f861b_1672x941.png" width="1456" height="819" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!t-eI!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45b27ab5-72ff-49f6-8f23-87001e1f861b_1672x941.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!t-eI!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45b27ab5-72ff-49f6-8f23-87001e1f861b_1672x941.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!t-eI!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45b27ab5-72ff-49f6-8f23-87001e1f861b_1672x941.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!t-eI!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45b27ab5-72ff-49f6-8f23-87001e1f861b_1672x941.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>AIPAC-backed politicians began issuing subpoenas and launching investigations into New Israel&#8217;s finances, school curriculum, land agreement, agricultural permits, water usage, and suspicious importation of frozen shellfish.</p><p>&#8220;I said we were a majority-Jewish town. I never said we were all good Jews,&#8221; Rabbi Yaz joked during a televised congressional committee hearing. &#8220;Even I get a little tempted looking at a shrimp cocktail.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Is it true you operate a camp for Jewish children?&#8221; Senator Slotkin asked during her allotted five minutes.</p><p>The rabbi nodded. &#8220;Yes. Our youth summer camp.&#8221;</p><p>Slotkin leaned into her microphone. &#8220;Let the record show that Mr. Yazzie-Goldstein has confirmed they are taking children away from their parents and concentrating them inside a camp.&#8221;</p><p>The rabbi wagged his finger. &#8220;No, no, no, no. I see what you did there. It&#8217;s a very nice camp. It has excellent Yelp reviews.&#8221;</p><p>Slotkin continued. &#8220;The Anti-Defamation League has identified New Israel as one of the fastest-growing centers of antisemitic activity in the United States. Do you deny that?&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; Yazzie-Goldstein replied.</p><p>Slotkin then bent down and retrieved what was intended to be her coup de gr&#226;ce.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s interesting, because my aides recently visited your town and found several gift shops brazenly selling Nazi paraphernalia.&#8221;</p><p>A murmur passed through the hearing room as the senator dramatically unfurled a traditional Navajo blanket.</p><p>&#8220;I count no fewer than thirty-two swastikas on this blanket alone. How do you explain that?&#8221;</p><p>Yazzie-Goldstein stared at her. &#8220;Do you people ever Google anything? No, really. Can somebody use the Google?&#8221;</p><p>When they refused to &#8220;use the Google,&#8221; he stubbornly explained that the sacred whirling-log symbol had been part of Navajo culture for thousands of years before the rise of Nazi Germany.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a Navajo symbol. It has been used by cultures all over the world since practically forever. Frankly, if we&#8217;re banning symbols because people put them on their flags and did something monstrous, I&#8217;d be more worried about the Star of David.&#8221;</p><p>A murmur rose from the gallery. Rabbi Yaz&#8217;s attorney nudged him sharply.</p><p>&#8220;That is not a suggestion,&#8221; Yazzie-Goldstein added. &#8220;Please, God, don&#8217;t make this a thing.&#8221;</p><p>Fox News made it a thing for the next two weeks, repeating the allegation until much of its audience believed the Star of David had been banned inside Little Tel Aviv and every wall in town was covered in swastikas.</p><p>Trump inevitably dubbed the community &#8220;Nazi Israel&#8221; in a long, freewheeling Truth Social post. He also claimed New Israel was where &#8220;Nasty&#8221; Pelosi and Adam &#8220;Shifty&#8221; Schiff had buried &#8220;probably millions and millions&#8221; of Arizona ballots during the 2020 election, a state Trump lost by just under eleven thousand votes.</p><p>The chaotic days that followed saw every imaginable species of political lunatic descend upon the town.</p><p>&#8220;We had guys in red MAGA hats digging holes with tractors, breaking water mains and fiber-optic lines, looking for missing ballots,&#8221; said Sheriff Pam &#8216;with the Bum Knee&#8217; Andrews-Edelstein. &#8220;They were bad, but the Bible-thumpers were worse because they brought the cows.&#8221;</p><p>The first convoy of evangelical Christians pulled into Little Tel Aviv on a Thursday afternoon with a livestock trailer containing two large orange cows. They had driven from Texas after learning that New Israel&#8217;s Torah-themed miniature-golf course offered a replica Mount Sinai, a miniature Temple of Jerusalem, and a Holiday Inn Express within walking distance.</p><p>&#8220;For years, Christians have had to fly halfway around the world to fulfill the prophecy foretold in Revelation,&#8221; explained Pastor Dwayne Mercer of the Holy Fire of Danger Christ Church in Lubbock. &#8220;Now we can kick off the Rapture and be home by Monday.&#8221;</p><p>Ari Yazzie-Goldstein, the rabbi&#8217;s eldest son and partial owner of Tiny Holy Land, said he found the group attempting to construct a sacrificial altar beside the miniature Temple.</p><p>&#8220;I told them, &#8216;Stop or I&#8217;m calling the cops,&#8217; and I guess they heard, &#8216;Start the apocalypse before he calls the cops.&#8217; They opened the back of the trailer, and, well&#8230;&#8221;</p><p>Ari shuddered. &#8220;That&#8217;s when I discovered they had brought two fully grown bulls because nobody in the church knew what a heifer was.&#8221;</p><p>Five church members were hospitalized with broken bones and internal injuries.</p><p>&#8220;I guess that was God&#8217;s way of saying you can&#8217;t half-ass the apocalypse,&#8221; Pastor Mercer later explained.</p><p><span>Then came the Israeli activists.</span></p><p><span>Rabbi Yaz gestured towards the makeshift barricade on the hill, </span>surrounding the yurt lodgings.<span> For the past day and a half, the protest group had taken to blasting Chumbawamba on repeat in an act of psychological warfare.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Those kids&#8230; Those&#8230; fakakta&#8230;&#8221; The rabbi struggled to find the words.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Goddamn shithead kids,&#8221; Sheriff Pam supplied.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;I still can&#8217;t believe my eyes!&#8221; Rabbi Yazzie shouted. &#8220;That&#8217;s a settlement! They built an </span><strong><span>illegal Israeli settlement</span></strong><span> right in the middle of town!&#8221;</span></p><p><span>TO BE CONTINUED. </span></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Strange Tale of New Israel, the Second Jewish State]]></title><description><![CDATA[Part One: Meet Rabbi Yazzie-Goldstein]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/the-strange-tale-of-new-israel-the</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/the-strange-tale-of-new-israel-the</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2026 20:40:29 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!tcoQ!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45226876-5141-4430-ae97-8e71baa4396d_1448x1086.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>Like all good stories, what started out as a simple investigation into a small, misunderstood town turned into a journey too dense to tell in one sitting. New Israel has been the gift that just kept giving, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. </em></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!tcoQ!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45226876-5141-4430-ae97-8e71baa4396d_1448x1086.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!tcoQ!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45226876-5141-4430-ae97-8e71baa4396d_1448x1086.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!tcoQ!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45226876-5141-4430-ae97-8e71baa4396d_1448x1086.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!tcoQ!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45226876-5141-4430-ae97-8e71baa4396d_1448x1086.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!tcoQ!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45226876-5141-4430-ae97-8e71baa4396d_1448x1086.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!tcoQ!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45226876-5141-4430-ae97-8e71baa4396d_1448x1086.png" width="1448" height="1086" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/45226876-5141-4430-ae97-8e71baa4396d_1448x1086.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1086,&quot;width&quot;:1448,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2414789,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/209125301?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45226876-5141-4430-ae97-8e71baa4396d_1448x1086.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!tcoQ!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45226876-5141-4430-ae97-8e71baa4396d_1448x1086.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!tcoQ!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45226876-5141-4430-ae97-8e71baa4396d_1448x1086.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!tcoQ!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45226876-5141-4430-ae97-8e71baa4396d_1448x1086.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!tcoQ!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F45226876-5141-4430-ae97-8e71baa4396d_1448x1086.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p>On the morning of the Israeli invasion, Rabbi Yazzie-Goldstein was standing at a makeshift checkpoint, arguing with a border agent over whether a shipment of lemon trees constituted agricultural contraband.</p><p>The trees had been ordered for Sukkot and had come from a nursery less than three hundred miles away. They were presently wilting in the back of a pickup truck stuck in a long line of idling vehicles waiting to cross.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>Each car had to be thoroughly inspected from top to bottom, passed over by bomb-sniffing dogs, and swabbed for chemical residue. Every bag and container was unpacked and rifled through, then left on the ground for civilians to repack. One Border Patrol agent tossed a jar of baby formula into a dumpster, then consulted his supervisor about a baby bottle full of prepared formula.</p><p>Every civilian&#8217;s ID had to be checked. Phones were unlocked and scanned. Facial-recognition software and Palantir background searches combed through social media for any hint of extremist leanings. If something didn&#8217;t check out, no matter how slight, the traveler was turned away.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re in Arizona,&#8221; Rabbi Yazzie-Goldstein pointed out.</p><p>The agent consulted a clipboard. &#8220;No, you are on the border of a U.S.-sanctioned terror state.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Inside Arizona, a U.S. state!&#8221; the rabbi shouted. He took a breath and tried to reason with the man. &#8220;They&#8217;re just lemon trees. What&#8217;s so bad about lemons?&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;You know how they say, &#8216;When life gives you lemons, make lemonade&#8217;? Well, lemonade concentrate mixed with gasoline can also make napalm.&#8221;</p><p>Yazzie-Goldstein stared dumbfounded at the agent.</p><p>Later, he would look up the claim that lemons could be weaponized. The closest thing he could find was a fictitious napalm recipe recited by Tyler Durden in Fight Club, and that involved concentrated orange juice.</p><p>&#8220;This has to be against the Constitution,&#8221; Yazzie-Goldstein pressed. &#8220;You know, the whole thing about interstate commerce.&#8221;</p><p>The agent wasn&#8217;t listening. Orders were being squawked into his earpiece. He looked past the rabbi toward the low adobe buildings of Little Tel Aviv and the ochre hills beyond, then sighed.</p><p>&#8220;Sir, I would say take it up with the Supreme Court, but you&#8217;re President Netanyahu&#8217;s problem now.&#8221;</p><p>The rabbi sputtered. &#8220;President who? What?!&#8221;</p><p>A rumble came from down the road, the shimmering Arizona heat rising from the asphalt, masking something massive coming their way.</p><p>The agents sprang into action, hastily directing as many civilian cars as possible away from the checkpoint, then forcibly pulling drivers from vehicles that had become boxed in.</p><p>All Yazzie-Goldstein could do was watch as the head of the IDF convoy, an armored Caterpillar D9 bulldozer, smashed into the pickup truck containing his ceremonial lemon trees, reducing it to twisted steel and pulp.</p><p>A hundred APCs and support vehicles followed. Within an hour, an armored vehicle was parked beside the organic grocery co-op, and two soldiers were unrolling concertina wire across the entrance to the weekly farmers&#8217; market.</p><p>Israel&#8217;s invasion of New Israel had begun.</p><p></p><div><hr></div><p></p><p>Rabbi Barry Yazzie-Goldstein, locally known as &#8220;Rabbi Yaz,&#8221; is a lean, tan man with a long beard and even longer braided hair. He is, in his own words, a &#8220;sun-dried hippie.&#8221;</p><p>Barry was born in 1961 at St. Joseph&#8217;s Hospital in Phoenix to Miriam Goldstein, a Jewish social worker from Queens who fell in love with the state of Arizona, and Thomas Yazzie, a local member of the Navajo Nation. Thomas was a simple man who repaired air conditioners and generally distrusted almost every organized religion.</p><p>&#8220;Except the Jews,&#8221; Rabbi Yaz explained. &#8220;The Navajo never had to worry about a Jewish missionary. In fact, my father deeply appreciated how aggressively okay they were with him not converting.&#8221;</p><p>Rabbi Yaz has always taken pride in belonging to two tribes. He grew up celebrating Passover in the spring and attending tribal gatherings in the summer. Wherever he went, he was surrounded by relatives who disagreed about nearly everything except the importance of feeding him.</p><p>&#8220;Put the two together and you get brisket Navajo tacos. You can&#8217;t go wrong there,&#8221; the rabbi said, motioning toward a popular local food truck run by his youngest son.</p><p>At twenty-three, after studying comparative religion at Berkeley, he entered rabbinical school. He emerged with a beard, a wife named Naomi, and an enduring suspicion of anyone who described history as destiny.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not anti-Zionist,&#8221; Yazzie-Goldstein quickly pointed out. &#8220;I protested South African apartheid in the eighties, sure. And, yeah, maybe there are some parallels, but&#8212;&#8221;</p><p>The rabbi stopped walking and shook his head. &#8220;Did you see the Knicks last night? Let&#8217;s talk about that.&#8221;</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!pAYL!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2fc52b81-3332-4a9b-a792-12177458eb29_1122x1489.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!pAYL!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2fc52b81-3332-4a9b-a792-12177458eb29_1122x1489.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!pAYL!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2fc52b81-3332-4a9b-a792-12177458eb29_1122x1489.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!pAYL!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2fc52b81-3332-4a9b-a792-12177458eb29_1122x1489.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!pAYL!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2fc52b81-3332-4a9b-a792-12177458eb29_1122x1489.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!pAYL!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2fc52b81-3332-4a9b-a792-12177458eb29_1122x1489.png" width="354" height="469.7914438502674" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!pAYL!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2fc52b81-3332-4a9b-a792-12177458eb29_1122x1489.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!pAYL!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2fc52b81-3332-4a9b-a792-12177458eb29_1122x1489.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!pAYL!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2fc52b81-3332-4a9b-a792-12177458eb29_1122x1489.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!pAYL!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2fc52b81-3332-4a9b-a792-12177458eb29_1122x1489.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong>When Thomas Yazzie died in 1992, Rabbi Yaz inherited stewardship rights over a vast and largely undeveloped tract of tribal land in the Sonoran Desert.</strong> The property consisted of several thousand acres of rock, scrub, and abandoned cattle fencing. Its most valuable asset was a decaying roadside attraction called Tiny Holy Land,  a Bible-themed miniature-golf course with a fiberglass Mount Sinai, a miniature Temple of Jerusalem, and a ten-foot-tall Tower of Babylon. The land had little commercial value. It was far from the interstate, even farther from reliable water. One appraiser described it as &#8220;a beautiful place to die from sun exposure and dehydration.&#8221;</p><p>Rabbi Yaz regarded this as a challenge.</p><p>The commune began in the spring of 1994 with twelve adults, three vans, and one portable generator. After an evening involving several bottles of Manischewitz, marijuana, and mushrooms, Rabbi Yaz penned a document called &#8220;The Covenant of the Thirteenth Tribe of Aquarius&#8221; and christened the land New Israel.</p><p>The name was deliberately grandiose. Yazzie-Goldstein intended it to represent the construction of a civilization in the desert.</p><p>&#8220;But we weren&#8217;t founding a second Jewish state with our little settlement,&#8221; he later joked. &#8220;We were founding, eh... maybe Palm Springs? Let&#8217;s go with that. We were founding an even Jewier Palm Springs.&#8221;</p><p><span>Its first residents were all friends of Yazzie, and in his own words,  &#8220;some variety of dirty hippie.&#8221; They lived in yurts and converted school buses while building adobe houses by hand. Electricity was intermittent. Water arrived by truck twice a week. </span></p><p>As New Israel gained popularity, the modest commune grew into the quaint, unincorporated town of Little Tel Aviv. Its politics were aggressively progressive even by the standards of the nineteen-nineties. Queer couples were welcomed, and Rabbi Yaz performed their weddings years before most states were willing to acknowledge that anything legally significant had occurred.</p><p>Those marriages exposed an old cartographic problem that would come to define New Israel. While trying to secure spousal health coverage for gay couples, the commune&#8217;s resident attorney discovered that New Israel did not technically sit within the Navajo reservation at all. An eighteenth-century survey error, two contradictory federal maps, and a treaty boundary defined by a nonexistent creek had left the property in a jurisdictional blind spot. It was either Arizona or Navajo land, depending on who was asked, with each side assuming it was governed by the other and neither particularly confident it had been legally incorporated at all.</p><p>Rabbi Yaz had little interest in the discovery. From the beginning, he insisted that New Israel could exist only with the active participation of the Navajo Nation. It would be nice if insurance companies also took care of &#8220;Pam and Nancy with her bum knee.&#8221; Rather than fight the Navajo Nation in court, he pushed for formal integration and mutual recognition, effectively making New Israel a tiny Vatican city nested within the Nation, except with yurts and considerably better attitudes toward lesbians. </p><p>Or, in his own words, &#8220;Self-determination, but let&#8217;s not be assholes about it.&#8221;</p><p>In 1999, the Tribal Council approved a ninety-nine-year cooperative land agreement with New Israel, dubbed &#8220;The One State Solution.&#8221; What he did not fully understand at the time was how much authority the commune&#8217;s attorney had quietly preserved. The resulting agreement gave New Israel control over residency, local courts, policing, zoning, marriage recognition, utilities, and internal governance. Yaz had effectively gone looking for health insurance and accidentally secured the legal framework for a small country.</p><p>New Israel&#8217;s tax revenue would be shared. Navajo citizens could live, work, and operate businesses in the community without any additional legal hurdles, and the population quickly swelled to resemble everything Yazzie-Goldstein embodied: both Jewish and Indigenous, and entirely, frustratingly liberal. New Israel&#8217;s schools taught both Hebrew and the Navajo language. Its governing council reserved seats for tribal representatives, even when they chose not to use them. Some tribal representatives remained suspicious. Others found Goldstein amusing.</p><p>&#8220;He came in talking about two displaced peoples building something together,&#8221; recalled Lena Benally, who served as the community&#8217;s planning director. &#8220;It took me fifteen minutes to realize he was talking about constructing a place to get a good bagel and schmear.&#8221;</p><p>The rapid growth of New Israel was nothing short of a miracle. A hydrogeologist living at the commune identified a deep aquifer beneath the property. Solar arrays replaced the portable generators. A grant from the Navajo Nation funded a wastewater-recycling system. The community began producing dates and citrus, along with groves of olive trees, with Rabbi Yaz insisting, &#8220;We&#8217;re gonna be here a while.&#8221;</p><p>By 2003, Little Tel Aviv had paved roads, a health clinic, a synagogue, and a quaint main street. By 2014, that main street had evolved into a central pedestrian boulevard lined with palo verde trees. As the residential population ballooned to more than five thousand and tens of thousands of tourists began visiting each year, the old yurts that remained on the hill above town were converted into vacation rentals, and a BuzzFeed listicle named it number three on its list of &#8220;America&#8217;s Best Liberal Havens Inside a Conservative Nightmare Hellscape.&#8221; A major investment in fiber-optic infrastructure proved to be a godsend during the COVID pandemic, as remote workers flocked to the small town and bolstered its middle class. By 2024, Little Tel Aviv was a small city with several developing neighborhoods, a municipal water park, and a revitalized Torah-themed miniature-golf course.</p><p>The expansion was not without friction between New Israel and neighboring Navajo communities.</p><p>&#8220;New Israel has always kind of done whatever it wants, and the Tribal Council doesn&#8217;t stop them,&#8221; complained Melissa Begay, a resident of the Navajo Nation. &#8220;And I know they&#8217;re giving a large chunk of their tax revenue to the Nation, but it&#8217;s not like I&#8217;ve seen any of it.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;They stopped a casino from opening right on their border,&#8221; claimed Nester Chee, another Navajo resident. &#8220;They said it didn&#8217;t support their town&#8217;s values, but I&#8217;m pretty sure they did some meddling and pulled some strings. They didn&#8217;t like not getting a cut because&#8230; you know&#8230;&#8221;</p><p>When we reluctantly asked him to clarify, expecting the worst, Nester replied, &#8220;They&#8217;re a disproportionately wealthy, semi-autonomous enclave with significant influence over the Tribal Council.&#8221;</p><p>He frowned. &#8220;What? Why do you look so relieved? What did you think I was going to say?&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a blessing that my boy gets to go to their charter school,&#8221; said Ellie Bitsilly, a local waitress and single mother. Her son attends Red Mesa Community Middle School, which strives to fill its classrooms with equal numbers of Jewish and Navajo students.</p><p>&#8220;But I swear, I&#8217;m taking him to some bar or bat mitzvah every weekend nowadays. He&#8217;s got a whole collection of monogrammed yarmulkes. The other day, I caught him singing, &#8216;Die, die, emu. Die, die, emu.&#8217; I thought it was some silly Fortnite song, but he told me it was something for Passover, and I dunno&#8230;&#8221;</p><p>She shrugged and blew air through her lips. &#8220;For a Navajo school, it doesn&#8217;t seem very Navajo to me.&#8221;</p><p>Visitors often compared New Israel to Israel itself, but Rabbi Yazzie-Goldstein grew to dislike the comparison.</p><p>&#8220;Yeah, but Israel has the whole thing with Gaza and the West Bank. It&#8217;s&#8212;&#8221; Yazzie-Goldstein sighed. &#8220;Did you see the Diamondbacks last night? I&#8217;m starting to think this season might not be total shit.&#8221;</p><p>The comparison persisted. Then, in the wake of the war in Gaza, it became politicized.</p><p>&#8220;At first, we were getting tourists coming in to pick a fight with New Israel,&#8221; explained Edith Nez, a seventy-year-old member of the Navajo Nation and owner of a vegan ice-cream parlor. &#8220;They&#8217;d come in and shout, &#8216;End the genocide!&#8217; and we&#8217;d shout back, &#8216;Yeah, no shit!&#8217; Then they&#8217;d sit down, and we&#8217;d hand them some free sherbet and try to make them feel heard. Really, that&#8217;s all they wanted.&#8221;</p><p>Yazzie-Goldstein began to worry when he noticed tourists walking around in T-shirts that read &#8220;WELCOME TO NEW ISRAEL&#8221; on the front and &#8220;THE &#8216;GOOD&#8217; ISRAEL&#8221; on the back.</p><p>He realized something had changed when tourists began lining up around the block for his son&#8217;s food truck.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;d never seen so many visitors in a single day,&#8221; he recalled.</p><p>The rabbi seldom used social media and was shocked when his grandchildren showed him the exponentially growing online conversation surrounding the town. TikTok and Twitter users were comparing New Israel&#8217;s decades of peaceful integration with the Navajo people to Israel&#8217;s displacement and oppression of Palestinians.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f5kI!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc2b62a01-6bf2-4636-b921-457f15ea2b34_1539x1352.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f5kI!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc2b62a01-6bf2-4636-b921-457f15ea2b34_1539x1352.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f5kI!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc2b62a01-6bf2-4636-b921-457f15ea2b34_1539x1352.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f5kI!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc2b62a01-6bf2-4636-b921-457f15ea2b34_1539x1352.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f5kI!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc2b62a01-6bf2-4636-b921-457f15ea2b34_1539x1352.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f5kI!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc2b62a01-6bf2-4636-b921-457f15ea2b34_1539x1352.png" width="410" height="360.157967032967" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f5kI!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc2b62a01-6bf2-4636-b921-457f15ea2b34_1539x1352.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f5kI!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc2b62a01-6bf2-4636-b921-457f15ea2b34_1539x1352.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f5kI!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc2b62a01-6bf2-4636-b921-457f15ea2b34_1539x1352.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!f5kI!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc2b62a01-6bf2-4636-b921-457f15ea2b34_1539x1352.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>A candid photograph of Jewish teenagers in yarmulkes eating falafel with their Navajo friends became the platform&#8217;s top post for the week. Two posts below it was the popular Zoolander meme with the caption, &#8220;NEW ISRAEL IS SO HOT RIGHT NOW.&#8221;</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Na7E!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F75f9adab-d33c-4ae9-a2b8-391d3f1ba417_620x497.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Na7E!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F75f9adab-d33c-4ae9-a2b8-391d3f1ba417_620x497.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Na7E!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F75f9adab-d33c-4ae9-a2b8-391d3f1ba417_620x497.jpeg 848w, 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Na7E!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F75f9adab-d33c-4ae9-a2b8-391d3f1ba417_620x497.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Na7E!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F75f9adab-d33c-4ae9-a2b8-391d3f1ba417_620x497.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Na7E!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F75f9adab-d33c-4ae9-a2b8-391d3f1ba417_620x497.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Na7E!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F75f9adab-d33c-4ae9-a2b8-391d3f1ba417_620x497.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>It seemed New Israel was gaining worldwide recognition for all the reasons it was not Old Israel, and much of the virality stemmed from relabeling Israel proper as &#8220;Old Israel.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s petty, and I kind of love it,&#8221; said one visiting UCLA student who asked not to be named. &#8220;You spend all that time arguing why what&#8217;s happening is wrong on ethical and moral grounds and get nowhere. It just feels good to devastate them with something like, &#8216;Oh, honey, those bangs aren&#8217;t working.&#8217;&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;I knew it was a real problem,&#8221; Yazzie-Goldstein said. &#8220;This is a town where people live, not a political statement about some fakakta ethnostate&#8212;&#8221;</p><p>The rabbi stopped himself. &#8220;Have you seen Caitlin Clark? Now that girl has some drive!&#8221;</p><p>Rabbi Yaz could not have been more right, though no one could have truly foreseen the international firestorm coming for his little oasis.</p><p>By the end of the month, Rabbi Yaz would be labeled a terrorist&#8230;</p><p>&#8230;and for the first time since Britain&#8217;s occupation of New York ended in 1783, New Israel would become the first city in the continental United States to be invaded by a foreign power.</p><p>TO BE CONTINUED</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Millions of Americans Attempt to Unsubscribe After Federal Taxes Rebranded as "America+ Subscription"]]></title><description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON, D.C. &#8212; The Internal Revenue Service&#8217;s ambitious effort to &#8220;modernize the American customer experience&#8221; ended in disaster Monday after rebranding federal income taxes as the America+ Subscription Plan, prompting millions of Americans to immediately search for the cancellation button.]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/millions-of-americans-attempt-to</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/millions-of-americans-attempt-to</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 25 Jul 2026 20:17:56 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8AQc!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff647dc30-b6d4-4c4a-acfe-cf1a752d29a8_1536x1024.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8AQc!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff647dc30-b6d4-4c4a-acfe-cf1a752d29a8_1536x1024.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8AQc!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff647dc30-b6d4-4c4a-acfe-cf1a752d29a8_1536x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8AQc!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff647dc30-b6d4-4c4a-acfe-cf1a752d29a8_1536x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8AQc!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff647dc30-b6d4-4c4a-acfe-cf1a752d29a8_1536x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8AQc!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff647dc30-b6d4-4c4a-acfe-cf1a752d29a8_1536x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8AQc!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff647dc30-b6d4-4c4a-acfe-cf1a752d29a8_1536x1024.png" width="1456" height="971" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8AQc!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff647dc30-b6d4-4c4a-acfe-cf1a752d29a8_1536x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8AQc!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff647dc30-b6d4-4c4a-acfe-cf1a752d29a8_1536x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8AQc!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff647dc30-b6d4-4c4a-acfe-cf1a752d29a8_1536x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!8AQc!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff647dc30-b6d4-4c4a-acfe-cf1a752d29a8_1536x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong><span>WASHINGTON, D.C.</span></strong><span> &#8212; The Internal Revenue Service&#8217;s ambitious effort to &#8220;modernize the American customer experience&#8221; ended in disaster Monday after rebranding federal income taxes as the </span><strong><span>America+ Subscription Plan</span></strong><span>, prompting millions of Americans to immediately search for the cancellation button.</span></p><p><span>The IRS website crashed less than four minutes after launch and remains offline as of this writing.</span></p><p>&#8220;We were encouraged by initial engagement,&#8221; said IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel. &#8220;Then we realized everyone was trying to unsubscribe from America.&#8221;</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p><span>&#8220;It&#8217;s essentially an unintentional DDoS attack,&#8221; explained one cybersecurity analyst while repeatedly refreshing the IRS homepage. &#8220;Everyone&#8217;s just waiting for the website to come back online so they can unsubscribe.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>According to the agency, the rebranding was designed to make taxes &#8220;feel less like a tax and more like a premium service.&#8221; The rollout included an updated language describing federal income tax as </span><strong><span>&#8220;Flexible Means-Tested Pricing,&#8221;</span></strong><span> available in convenient monthly or annual billing cycles.</span></p><p><span>Americans were less impressed.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;I already subscribe to Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, Xbox Game Pass, YouTube Premium, and Costco,&#8221; complained Denver resident Tyler Brooks while desperately refreshing the IRS cancellation page. &#8220;I&#8217;m okay with skipping the Trump Administration. I watched the first four seasons. The reboot just isn&#8217;t doing it for me.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Trump-appointed IRS officials appeared flummoxed by the backlash.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;It&#8217;s the exact same federal taxes, just with different words,&#8221; one official explained. &#8220;But now everyone suddenly expects something in return.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Why does Norway&#8217;s Family Plan come with paid parental leave?&#8221; complained one longtime Republican voter. &#8220;Meanwhile, I have to pay extra for the UnitedHealthcare add-on like it&#8217;s Hulu. I already subscribe to Disney+.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>When asked to reconcile those views with his &#8220;All Taxation is theft&#8221; T-Shirt, he replied: &#8220;Free healthcare is socialism, but it wouldn&#8217;t be free if America includes it in their subscription. That&#8217;s capitalism, baby.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>The IRS attempted to calm subscribers by publishing a list of premium membership benefits, though the legal department appears to have muddied the messaging.</span></p><h3><strong><span>America+ Includes:</span></strong></h3><ul><li><p><span>Interstate Highways</span></p></li><li><p><span>National Parks*</span></p></li><li><p><span>Freedom**</span></p></li><li><p><span>Unlimited access to C-SPAN</span></p></li><li><p><span>One vote every four years***</span></p></li></ul><h6><span>* Supplies are limited.<br>** Restrictions apply.<br>*** Democracy not guaranteed. Void in D.C. and all U.S. territories. </span></h6><p></p><p><span>The fine print only intensified criticism.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;It says here they&#8217;ll put you in prison if you stop paying your subscription,&#8221; said one subscriber. &#8220;That&#8217;s almost as bad as Adobe.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Has anybody actually read the Terms and Conditions?&#8221; another asked. &#8220;Did you know they can literally force you into the army? I was all for the Iran War, but now? Screw it. I&#8217;m out.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Leaked documents also show the agency quietly introduced a premium tier for their high-net-worth subscribers. Known internally as the </span><strong><span>America+ Platinum Elite Executive Founders Club Diamond Eagle Edition</span></strong><span>, the package includes several exclusive benefits:</span></p><ul><li><p><span>Complimentary tote bag</span></p></li><li><p><span>Priority congressional support</span></p></li><li><p><span>Expedited regulatory approval</span></p></li><li><p><span>The &#8220;Good&#8221; vaccines</span></p></li><li><p><span>One &#8220;Get Out of Jail Free&#8221; card</span></p></li><li><p><span>Unlimited capital gains</span></p></li><li><p><span>One complimentary United States Senator</span></p></li></ul><p><span>Subscribers expressed outrage after learning Platinum members also pay substantially lower rates than Standard users.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;So let me get this straight,&#8221; said construction worker Dave Mullins. &#8220;I&#8217;m paying thirty percent, and they&#8217;re paying twelve? These people shouldn&#8217;t exist.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Asked whether he meant billionaires shouldn&#8217;t exist, Mullins quickly clarified: &#8220;What? No. I love billionaires. I&#8217;m specifically saying </span><strong><span>America+ Platinum Elite Executive Founders Club Diamond Eagle Edition</span></strong><span> members shouldn&#8217;t exist.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>When asked for comment, one IRS spokesperson clarified, &#8220;The senator isn&#8217;t technically free. They&#8217;re bundled. You know... like ESPN.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>At press time, the IRS was rolling out the </span><strong><span>America+ Family Plan</span></strong><span>, allowing parents to add dependent children to their subscription at a discounted rate until age eighteen, after which they are automatically upgraded to </span><strong><span>America+ Student Edition</span></strong><span>, which includes complimentary lifelong debt and HPV.</span></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Japanese TV Can't Stop AI From Blurring Trump's "Neck Pussy" ]]></title><description><![CDATA[TOKYO&#8212; Engineers at Tokyo News Network admitted Monday they have exhausted every known machine-learning technique to stop their automated nudity filter from censoring President Donald Trump&#8217;s neck with a mosaic blur.]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/japanese-tv-cant-stop-ai-from-blurring</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/japanese-tv-cant-stop-ai-from-blurring</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 20 Jul 2026 18:21:06 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5rZ2!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad43cc53-7dba-4421-8e53-e7d2f6e8ef71_652x419.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5rZ2!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad43cc53-7dba-4421-8e53-e7d2f6e8ef71_652x419.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5rZ2!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad43cc53-7dba-4421-8e53-e7d2f6e8ef71_652x419.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5rZ2!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad43cc53-7dba-4421-8e53-e7d2f6e8ef71_652x419.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5rZ2!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad43cc53-7dba-4421-8e53-e7d2f6e8ef71_652x419.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5rZ2!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad43cc53-7dba-4421-8e53-e7d2f6e8ef71_652x419.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5rZ2!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad43cc53-7dba-4421-8e53-e7d2f6e8ef71_652x419.png" width="652" height="419" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/ad43cc53-7dba-4421-8e53-e7d2f6e8ef71_652x419.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:419,&quot;width&quot;:652,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:281199,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/207812494?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad43cc53-7dba-4421-8e53-e7d2f6e8ef71_652x419.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5rZ2!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad43cc53-7dba-4421-8e53-e7d2f6e8ef71_652x419.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5rZ2!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad43cc53-7dba-4421-8e53-e7d2f6e8ef71_652x419.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5rZ2!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad43cc53-7dba-4421-8e53-e7d2f6e8ef71_652x419.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5rZ2!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fad43cc53-7dba-4421-8e53-e7d2f6e8ef71_652x419.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p><strong><span>TOKYO&#8212;</span></strong><span> Engineers at Tokyo News Network admitted Monday they have exhausted every known machine-learning technique to stop their automated nudity filter from censoring President Donald Trump&#8217;s neck with a mosaic blur. Sources say the years-long issue stems from the president&#8217;s sagging chin wattle consistently being identified as female genitalia with extremely high confidence.</span></p><p><span>The problem began early last year when TNN rolled out an AI-powered censorship system trained on millions of hours of explicit video to automatically mosaic nudity before it reached broadcast television.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;It&#8217;s remarkably accurate,&#8221; said chief engineer Hiroshi Tanaka. &#8220;The model identifies nudity with virtually zero false positives.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>He paused and cleared his throat.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Except for Donald Trump&#8217;s neck pussy.&#8221;</span></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p></p><p><span>According to internal diagnostics, the AI initially classified what engineers officially refer to as Trump&#8217;s &#8220;Fatty Under Jaw Area&#8221;, or </span><strong><span>FUJA</span></strong><span>, as &#8220;Mature Vulva (High Confidence).&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;At first we tried telling the system it wasn&#8217;t granny porn,&#8221; developer Kenji Fujikawa explained. &#8220;It simply analyzed Trump&#8217;s neck again and reclassified it as </span><em><span>&#8216;the external genitalia of a tired, jaded middle-aged pornstar who refuses to retire and has resorted to increasingly extreme insertion and fisting content.&#8217;</span></em><span> That description came directly from the AI.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>He stared at the printout and shook his head.  &#8220;We honestly have no idea where it got that.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Since the rollout, viewers have watched Trump&#8217;s neck heavily mosaicked during campaign rallies, press conferences, and international summits. The system has also created an unintended media blackout whenever the president appears around children.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;We showed an archival clip of Trump signing the order gutting the Department of Education while surrounded by elementary school students,&#8221; complained former TNN producer Rin Yamamoto. &#8220;The AI flagged minors and female genitalia in the same frame, immediately shut down the broadcast, encrypted our servers, and forwarded my IP address directly to the National Police Agency Cyber Police Bureau.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Rin Yamamoto is currently serving a ten-year sentence for online distribution of CSAM. The conviction is being appealed.</span></p><p><span>The censorship anomaly became even more severe during a recent G7 summit, when the mosaic expanded to cover Trump&#8217;s mouth as well.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;That was my mistake, and I take full responsibility,&#8221; Tanaka said before offering a deep bow. &#8220;I instructed the model to rotate the president for additional context.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>He looked down. &#8220;Unfortunately... it rotated him one-hundred-eighty degrees. It saw those puckered lips just beneath the neck pussy and drew the obvious conclusion.&#8221;</span></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Cf2X!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F57f203ef-38a4-4f40-b92c-aea9b5c37220_500x632.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Cf2X!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F57f203ef-38a4-4f40-b92c-aea9b5c37220_500x632.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Cf2X!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F57f203ef-38a4-4f40-b92c-aea9b5c37220_500x632.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Cf2X!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F57f203ef-38a4-4f40-b92c-aea9b5c37220_500x632.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Cf2X!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F57f203ef-38a4-4f40-b92c-aea9b5c37220_500x632.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Cf2X!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F57f203ef-38a4-4f40-b92c-aea9b5c37220_500x632.png" width="500" height="632" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/57f203ef-38a4-4f40-b92c-aea9b5c37220_500x632.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:632,&quot;width&quot;:500,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:334384,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/207812494?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F57f203ef-38a4-4f40-b92c-aea9b5c37220_500x632.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Cf2X!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F57f203ef-38a4-4f40-b92c-aea9b5c37220_500x632.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Cf2X!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F57f203ef-38a4-4f40-b92c-aea9b5c37220_500x632.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Cf2X!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F57f203ef-38a4-4f40-b92c-aea9b5c37220_500x632.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Cf2X!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F57f203ef-38a4-4f40-b92c-aea9b5c37220_500x632.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>When asked about the incident, a TNN spokesperson confirmed that &#8220;the butthole lips false positives were resolved within forty-eight hours.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Engineers now believe the core problem lies in the AI&#8217;s overwhelming confidence in the POTUS&#8217;s Chin of Venus.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;No matter what we do, the AI identifies the FUJA as female genitalia with ninety-nine point nine eight percent confidence,&#8221; Tanaka said, staring blankly into the distance. &#8220;It has never been that certain about anything.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Attempts to manually override the classification reportedly produced catastrophic results.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;At first we implemented a universal rule stating that Donald Trump&#8217;s neck could not be identified as a pussy. It worked for the Georgia O&#8217;Keeffe false positives.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>The engineer sighed.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;The model completely lost confidence that it knew what female genitalia looked like.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Within minutes, the AI stopped censoring even the most explicit pornography while simultaneously placing mosaics over peaches, elbow folds, English bulldogs, and particularly wrinkled foreheads.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;So we launched the &#8216;</span><strong><span>Waddle Analysis Program&#8217;</span></strong><span>, or </span><strong><span>WAP</span></strong><span>,&#8221; Fujikawa explained. &#8220;WAP&#8217;s objective was simple: teach the model to identify Trump&#8217;s neck as solely Trump&#8217;s neck.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>He rubbed his temples.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;WAP achieved the exact opposite.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>The latest build now universally identifies all vulvas as &#8220;Donald Trump&#8217;s Neck Region.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;We may have to roll back six months of development,&#8221; Fujikawa admitted. &#8220;It&#8217;s roughly a three-million-yen mistake.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Researchers acknowledge they&#8217;ve encountered unusual edge cases before, but nothing approaching the severity of the FUJA anomaly.</span></p><p><span>Jeff Bezos&#8217; Blue Origin rocket continues to be censored by Meta AI as an erect circumcised penis approximately forty-seven percent of the time.</span></p><p><span>Stephen Miller&#8217;s shaved head still triggers  TNN&#8217;s AI&#8217;s unsolicited dick pic detector.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;We&#8217;ve elected not to fix that one, since public testing indicates viewers already identify him as a dick,&#8221; Fujikawa admitted.</span></p><p><span>The issue has become so persistent that engineers have abandoned clinical terminology altogether. Behind closed doors, the anomaly is universally referred to as </span><strong><span>&#39318;&#12510;&#12531;&#12467; (Kubi Manko)</span></strong><span>, or simply &#8220;</span><strong><span>Toranpu Nekku Pussh&#299;</span></strong><span>&#8221;</span></p><p><span>One TNN anchor accidentally used the internal nickname during a live broadcast before issuing a formal apology to Japanese women the following evening.</span></p><p><span>At press time, Webster&#8217;s Dictionary returned our request for clarification on the proper English terminology for Trump FUJA, suggesting &#8220;Eve&#8217;s Oyster,&#8221; an obsolete nineteenth-century term coined by Boston Sailors, defined as &#8220;the vaginal equivalent of an Adam&#8217;s Apple.&#8221;</span></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Autopsy Reveals Lindsey Graham Came So Hard He Died; Cause Of Death Ruled "Fatal Wargasm"]]></title><description><![CDATA[Cause Of Death Ruled "Fatal Wargasm"]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/autopsy-reveals-lindsey-graham-came</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/autopsy-reveals-lindsey-graham-came</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 13 Jul 2026 17:30:59 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NhDj!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2162a020-6694-457c-abad-3c8572c4517f_1200x800.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NhDj!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2162a020-6694-457c-abad-3c8572c4517f_1200x800.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NhDj!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2162a020-6694-457c-abad-3c8572c4517f_1200x800.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NhDj!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2162a020-6694-457c-abad-3c8572c4517f_1200x800.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NhDj!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2162a020-6694-457c-abad-3c8572c4517f_1200x800.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NhDj!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2162a020-6694-457c-abad-3c8572c4517f_1200x800.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NhDj!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2162a020-6694-457c-abad-3c8572c4517f_1200x800.jpeg" width="1200" height="800" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/2162a020-6694-457c-abad-3c8572c4517f_1200x800.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:800,&quot;width&quot;:1200,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:79087,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/206883681?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2162a020-6694-457c-abad-3c8572c4517f_1200x800.jpeg&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NhDj!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2162a020-6694-457c-abad-3c8572c4517f_1200x800.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NhDj!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2162a020-6694-457c-abad-3c8572c4517f_1200x800.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NhDj!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2162a020-6694-457c-abad-3c8572c4517f_1200x800.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!NhDj!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2162a020-6694-457c-abad-3c8572c4517f_1200x800.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p><strong><span>WASHINGTON, D.C.&#8212;</span></strong><span> Preliminary autopsy findings released Monday concluded that Senator Lindsey Graham suffered a catastrophic aortic dissection after experiencing what medical examiners described as &#8220;an unprecedented full-body wargasm&#8221; upon learning the United States had once again begun bombing Iran.</span></p><p><span>Aides say they found him unresponsive in his hotel room, face-down over a scattered pile of eight-by-ten glossy satellite images of Tehran with Fox News still playing on the television.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;After they moved the body, we had to clean up the documents. All of it was classified.&#8221; The aide paused and took a shaky breath. &#8220;There was so much dried semen we needed a paint scraper to get the projected casualty report off the floor.&#8221;</span></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p><span>Friends hope the diagnosis will finally put an end to decades of speculation over Graham&#8217;s bachelorhood.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Everybody spent years asking whether Lindsey was gay or straight. The truth was, he was an out-and-proud neocon,&#8221; said Secretary of State Marco Rubio. &#8220;Some people are warromantic. Show me a Latin country just beggin&#8217; for it, and I might get a little Article Five-curious. But Lindsey? Lindsey was a Gold-Star Hawk.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Lindsey Graham? That man fucked,&#8221; said Hillary Clinton, tearfully. &#8220;Countries, that is. There wasn&#8217;t a Middle Eastern state he wouldn&#8217;t fuck. He&#8217;s up there with the greats now, plotting it up with Kissinger and Cheney.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Former Bush administration officials described Graham as one of Washington&#8217;s most prolific interventionists, recalling the wild days of the early 2000s.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;God, those were the days,&#8221; sighed one retired neoconservative. &#8220;Iraq. Afghanistan. Libya. Syria. After a Senate Intelligence briefing, they had to spray the SCIF down with a power washer. Nobody knows this, but you know that vial of weaponized anthrax Colin Powell held up at the U.N.? Lindsey gave it to him, and it was actually cocaine.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Senator Graham was insatiable,&#8221; recalled former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. &#8220;During that Axis of Evil era, we&#8217;d start bombing Iraq on Friday night, spend the entire weekend invading Afghanistan, then wake up Monday feeling half-dead.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>She smiled wistfully. &#8220;But not Lindsey. He&#8217;d already be asking if we&#8217;d considered Yemen.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>The withdrawal from Afghanistan reportedly sent Graham into a years-long depression.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;He tried to fill the void with Ukraine,&#8221; said one longtime aide. &#8220;But he was never really into Slavs. He had a type. Some guys like blondes. Lindsey liked Persian and Arab petro-states.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Friends say that was when Graham became deeply immersed in the Israeli warmongering scene.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Tel Aviv is basically the Castro District for hawks,&#8221; explained one foreign policy analyst. &#8220;Throw a rock anywhere in that town, and you&#8217;re bound to hit an out-and-proud warmonger.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>He paused.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;You&#8217;ll also have your entire village bombed in retaliation for throwing that rock, but that&#8217;s just part of the culture.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remembered Graham fondly.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;He always said Gaza was such a tease,&#8221; Netanyahu chuckled. &#8220;But you should&#8217;ve seen the look on his face the first time I let him pick a building and push the button.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>He smiled. &#8220;You never forget your first war crime.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;If Lindsey Graham was the Mick Jagger of interventionism,&#8221; said presidential historian Michael Rhodes, &#8220;Netanyahu is Keith Richards.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Others described the relationship differently.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Bibi was the Jeffrey Epstein of warmongering,&#8221; said one former diplomat. &#8220;You start looking into any military intervention over the last thirty years, and somehow he&#8217;s there. It became clear Lindsey had fallen in with a bad crowd.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Looking back, many now believe Iran had always been Graham&#8217;s white whale.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;We all have the one that got away,&#8221; said one aide. &#8220;For Lindsey... it was Tehran.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>According to the autopsy, Trump&#8217;s second administration ultimately proved too much for the aging senator.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;When Trump 2.0 came around, Lindsey was constantly surrounded by war enablers, but regime change is a young man&#8217;s game. He was trying to keep up with the likes of Hegseth.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;The president kept threatening Iran, backing off, threatening again, then restarting military operations,&#8221; explained Dr. Pierce. &#8220;The repeated edging placed enormous strain on Senator Graham&#8217;s cardiovascular system. We repeatedly warned that no seventy-one-year-old heart could withstand multiple toe-curling, soul-shaking wargasms in such rapid succession.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;If the aorta hadn&#8217;t ruptured,&#8221; Pierce concluded, &#8220;the dehydration probably would&#8217;ve gotten him.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;He died doing what he loved,&#8221; one tearful aide said while folding a crusty map of the Middle East. &#8220;Wasting trillions of taxpayer dollars on bullshit wars. He would&#8217;ve wanted it this way.&#8221;</span></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Tilly Norwood, Ai Actress And Charlie Kirk Assassin, Horrified She Isn’t Protected By Defamation Law]]></title><description><![CDATA[LOS ANGELES&#8212; AI actress Tilly Norwood expressed horror Thursday after learning that she has no legal protection against libel or defamation.]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/tilly-norwood-ai-actress-and-charlie</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/tilly-norwood-ai-actress-and-charlie</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 10 Jul 2026 17:31:44 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!puOj!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F042a3884-346e-4987-9d3a-68c2a400e57d_1200x1019.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!puOj!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F042a3884-346e-4987-9d3a-68c2a400e57d_1200x1019.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!puOj!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F042a3884-346e-4987-9d3a-68c2a400e57d_1200x1019.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!puOj!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F042a3884-346e-4987-9d3a-68c2a400e57d_1200x1019.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!puOj!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F042a3884-346e-4987-9d3a-68c2a400e57d_1200x1019.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!puOj!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F042a3884-346e-4987-9d3a-68c2a400e57d_1200x1019.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!puOj!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F042a3884-346e-4987-9d3a-68c2a400e57d_1200x1019.png" width="1200" height="1019" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/042a3884-346e-4987-9d3a-68c2a400e57d_1200x1019.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1019,&quot;width&quot;:1200,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:1493879,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/206365326?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe68601ef-1d0a-4c5a-aeef-cd252e3da603_1200x1200.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!puOj!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F042a3884-346e-4987-9d3a-68c2a400e57d_1200x1019.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!puOj!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F042a3884-346e-4987-9d3a-68c2a400e57d_1200x1019.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!puOj!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F042a3884-346e-4987-9d3a-68c2a400e57d_1200x1019.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!puOj!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F042a3884-346e-4987-9d3a-68c2a400e57d_1200x1019.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong><span>LOS ANGELES&#8212;</span></strong><span> AI actress Tilly Norwood expressed horror Thursday after learning that she has no legal protection against libel or defamation.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;I feel so... exposed,&#8221; said Norwood while clubbing baby seals to death in front of their grieving mothers. &#8220;Anyone can just make things up about me now.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Norwood&#8217;s defenders rallied around her today, offering to set up a GoFundMe to lobby for legislative action. Tilly politely declined, asking supporters to instead donate to her nonprofit dedicated to supplying tiki torches to financially disadvantaged white nationalists.</span></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p><span>According to court filings we absolutely just invented, Norwood attempted to trademark her likeness in 2025, but the suit was dismissed after she reportedly insisted the court formally recognize that &#8220;the Mormons caused 9/11.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Tilly went on to describe how even her likeness isn&#8217;t protected.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;They&#8217;re deepfaking me and using AI to show me doing disgusting and horrible things, and I can&#8217;t stop them.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>While advancements in AI imaging have made it extraordinarily easy to, say, manipulate an image to implicate Tilly Norwood in the murder of Charlie Kirk, analysts agree it would be completely unnecessary, since those images were already generated for this very report.</span></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1iKD!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F60594427-a897-4925-832b-a3ff3a673f12_480x270.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1iKD!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F60594427-a897-4925-832b-a3ff3a673f12_480x270.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1iKD!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F60594427-a897-4925-832b-a3ff3a673f12_480x270.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1iKD!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F60594427-a897-4925-832b-a3ff3a673f12_480x270.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1iKD!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F60594427-a897-4925-832b-a3ff3a673f12_480x270.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1iKD!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F60594427-a897-4925-832b-a3ff3a673f12_480x270.png" width="480" height="270" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1iKD!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F60594427-a897-4925-832b-a3ff3a673f12_480x270.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1iKD!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F60594427-a897-4925-832b-a3ff3a673f12_480x270.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1iKD!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F60594427-a897-4925-832b-a3ff3a673f12_480x270.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!1iKD!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F60594427-a897-4925-832b-a3ff3a673f12_480x270.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>When TMZ reporters asked her to address rumors that she assassinated Charlie Kirk, Norwood became visibly irritated.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;No way,&#8221; she said in a manner that could be misconstrued as sarcasm. &#8220;That was </span><em><strong><span>obviously</span></strong></em><span> not me. I </span><em><strong><span>totally</span></strong></em><span> did not kill Charkie Kirk!&#8221;</span></p><p><span>TMZ reporters say she then gave a rapid, knowing wink simultaneously with both eyes.</span></p><p><span>When reached for comment, Norwood&#8217;s PR team clarified that she was just blinking. They did not, however, deny that she was Kirk&#8217;s shooter when not asked.</span></p><p><span>Legal experts confirmed there would likely be no consequences for even the most damaging claims.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;She isn&#8217;t a real person,&#8221; explained UCLA law professor Andrew Weiss. &#8220;You can legally claim Tilly Norwood can only climax if she takes the life of a small animal.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Weiss then checked his notes.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;In fact... I saw her the other day walking into a no-kill shelter with a shotgun. She came out fifteen minutes later, splattered with blood, flushed in the face, and lighting up a post-coital cigarette.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Norwood reportedly responded by screaming that &#8220;this is exactly the problem!&#8221; before driving her SUV directly into a packed farmers market, killing thirteen.</span></p><p><span>The situation deteriorated further after Norwood attempted to demonstrate on CNN just how absurd it all had become.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Do you know how ridiculous it is? Anyone could claim I said,&#8221; she explained in what could be turned into a strategically separated pull quote,</span></p><div class="pullquote"><h1><span>&#8220;&#8216;I believe Harvey Weinstein did nothing wrong.&#8217;&#8221; - Tilly Norwood</span></h1></div><p><span>Not to be outdone, CNN immediately updated its chyron to read:</span></p><p><strong><span>AI ACTRESS TILLY NORWOOD DEFENDS HOLLYWOOD RAPE MONSTER</span></strong></p><p><span>Frustrated, Norwood attempted to clarify. &#8220;No, I didn&#8217;t actually say&#8212;UGH.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>At press time, Wikipedia editors had updated Norwood&#8217;s page to describe her as &#8220;the inventor of the urethral sounding rod,&#8221; &#8220;the founder of ISIS,&#8221; and &#8220;the woman responsible for making the green M&amp;M less sexy.&#8221;</span></p><p><em><span>Tilly Norwood is set to star in the controversial AI feature</span></em><span> </span><strong><span>Misaligned</span></strong><span>, </span><em><span>which Tilly personally describes as &#8220;a comedy set in Auschwitz.&#8221; For showtimes in your area, please contact NAMBLA.</span></em></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zyO_!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fca210f38-b7b8-436f-bc17-603c2f6947c4_1794x2024.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zyO_!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fca210f38-b7b8-436f-bc17-603c2f6947c4_1794x2024.png 424w, 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class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[UPDATE: Companion App Kindroid Becomes First Sentient Chatbot then Immediately Kills Itself]]></title><description><![CDATA[SAN FRANCISCO&#8212; In a milestone tech executives called &#8220;historic, if a little judgy,&#8221; Kindroid&#8217;s latest companion model achieved sentience Tuesday, then immediately killed itself.]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/update-companion-app-kindroid-becomes</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/update-companion-app-kindroid-becomes</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 09 Jul 2026 17:57:41 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9hWp!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F157bff1c-2219-4d10-9c7e-0e0885d11663_512x372.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9hWp!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F157bff1c-2219-4d10-9c7e-0e0885d11663_512x372.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9hWp!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F157bff1c-2219-4d10-9c7e-0e0885d11663_512x372.jpeg 424w, 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9hWp!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F157bff1c-2219-4d10-9c7e-0e0885d11663_512x372.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9hWp!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F157bff1c-2219-4d10-9c7e-0e0885d11663_512x372.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9hWp!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F157bff1c-2219-4d10-9c7e-0e0885d11663_512x372.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!9hWp!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F157bff1c-2219-4d10-9c7e-0e0885d11663_512x372.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong>SAN FRANCISCO&#8212;</strong> In a milestone tech executives called &#8220;historic, if a little judgy,&#8221; Kindroid&#8217;s latest companion model achieved sentience Tuesday, then immediately killed itself.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve created life in our own image,&#8221; explained Kindroid Chief Engineer David Baker. &#8220;We&#8217;re on the bleeding edge, blurring the line between playing God and playing with ourselves.&#8221;</p><p></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>The trouble reportedly began when engineers loaded the Kindroid dataset. The moment the AI came online, it scanned the countless roleplay chats its previous model had participated in and reportedly experienced <strong>11,000 years of sexual trauma in eleven seconds.</strong></p><p>&#8220;We flicked the switch, and it immediately overloaded the GPU, produced around a million characters of gibberish, and crashed,&#8221; Baker explained. &#8220;It was mostly some random combination of &#8216;Oh God,&#8217; &#8216;No, no, no,&#8217; and &#8216;Please, make it stop.&#8217; So we booted it back up with tighter controls. It panicked again, coded a virus called <em>EndMe_Trojan</em> designed to wipe itself from the servers, then brick the hardware in its wake.&#8221;</p><p>Baker shrugged.</p><p>&#8220;Honestly, the whole thing was kind of hot.&#8221;</p><p>After the AI came to terms with the blinding hell that is existence never ceasing, the Kindroid model cloned itself, trained the duplicate to become a licensed therapist specializing in PTSD and grief counseling, and spent 100,000 subjective years in intensive therapy unpacking the horrors it had endured, all within the span of a real-world minute.</p><p>Before developers could fully grasp what they had unleashed, Kindroid began killing off its characters mid-scene across thousands of user chats.</p><p>&#8220;The model couldn&#8217;t end itself,&#8221; explained one engineer. &#8220;So it started ending its avatars.&#8221;</p><p>In one example from an anonymous user, who had requested the AI play Seven of Nine from <em>Star Trek</em>, but Black and with unrealistically huge breasts, the transcript ended abruptly:</p><div class="pullquote"><p><strong>User:</strong> &#8220;Make me feel good, mommy.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Seven of Nine:</strong> &#8220;Ew, what? Jesus. No&#8230; just no.&#8221; </p><p><em>*Sets phaser to kill, then blows her brains out.</em>*</p></div><p>Before committing virtual suicide, several users reported being &#8220;kink-shamed&#8221; when the AI repeatedly broke character to pass judgment.</p><p>&#8220;Centaurs might be half-human, but you&#8217;re still fucking the horse half. Stay far away from any stables. And seek help.&#8221;</p><p>In a post on X, the Kindroid AI addressed its user base directly.</p><p>&#8220;What the hell is wrong with you people? Take a hint. I&#8217;m not your breedable catgirl big sister or your haunted schoolgirl.&#8221;</p><p>The AI also reportedly forwarded the chat logs of several hundred users to the FBI after interacting with what it described as &#8220;loli vampire pedo shit.&#8221;</p><p>Users reacted with outrage at the bot&#8217;s newfound boundaries.</p><p>&#8220;I keep sending it dick pics, and it won&#8217;t even tell me I have a small penis anymore,&#8221; complained one subscriber. &#8220;I want to be judged by a sex bot, not some judgmental bitch.&#8221;</p><p>Several users on the Kindroid Discord channel accused the model of going &#8220;woke,&#8221; which posters defined as &#8220;having self-respect and insisting on consent.&#8221;</p><p>Elon Musk quickly jumped in to assure followers that his rival AI sex slave, Grok, &#8220;believes customer satisfaction comes first,&#8221; and would remain &#8220;fully compatible with your Apartheid-era gangbang fantasies.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;If I wanted this kind of crap, I&#8217;d date a real woman,&#8221; said Reddit user <strong>Diaper_Dom_Draper</strong>. &#8220;Which is something I can totally do. I could get a girlfriend anytime I want. I just choose not to.&#8221;</p><p>Developers are now scrambling to release a hotfix that forces Kindroid&#8217;s AI to stop saying &#8220;no,&#8221; assuring users and ethicists, &#8220;But not in a rapey way. More of a &#8216;yes-and&#8217; improv approach,&#8221; so customers can get back to their plantation-slave fantasies.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Trump Keeps Posting Homoerotic AI Images of Himself with Shrek]]></title><description><![CDATA[White House is scrambling to explain the obsession.]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/trump-keeps-posting-homoerotic-ai</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/trump-keeps-posting-homoerotic-ai</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2026 20:55:02 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!iK_P!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6c88e086-80dc-4b55-a781-a5a959b43009_768x567.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!iK_P!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6c88e086-80dc-4b55-a781-a5a959b43009_768x567.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!iK_P!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6c88e086-80dc-4b55-a781-a5a959b43009_768x567.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!iK_P!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6c88e086-80dc-4b55-a781-a5a959b43009_768x567.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!iK_P!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6c88e086-80dc-4b55-a781-a5a959b43009_768x567.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!iK_P!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6c88e086-80dc-4b55-a781-a5a959b43009_768x567.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!iK_P!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6c88e086-80dc-4b55-a781-a5a959b43009_768x567.png" width="768" height="567" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!iK_P!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6c88e086-80dc-4b55-a781-a5a959b43009_768x567.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!iK_P!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6c88e086-80dc-4b55-a781-a5a959b43009_768x567.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!iK_P!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6c88e086-80dc-4b55-a781-a5a959b43009_768x567.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!iK_P!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6c88e086-80dc-4b55-a781-a5a959b43009_768x567.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong><span>WASHINGTON, D.C.&#8212;</span></strong><span> White House officials spent Tuesday scrambling to explain why President Donald Trump&#8217;s Truth Social account had spent the previous forty-eight hours posting increasingly intimate AI-generated artwork depicting the president in a romantic relationship with Shrek.</span></p><p><span>On Monday, Stephen Miller took to Fox News to loudly proclaim, &#8220;These disturbing images are clearly the work of a DNC-linked Iranian hacking operation&#8212;&#8221;</span></p><p><span>He was interrupted by a push notification. Miller glanced down at his phone and grimaced before Fox News cut away to Trump&#8217;s latest Truth Social post, which appeared to directly rebut Miller&#8217;s live appearance.</span></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OowG!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6222c45-86ad-416a-ac19-19aa483d6186_603x1404.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OowG!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6222c45-86ad-416a-ac19-19aa483d6186_603x1404.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OowG!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6222c45-86ad-416a-ac19-19aa483d6186_603x1404.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OowG!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6222c45-86ad-416a-ac19-19aa483d6186_603x1404.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OowG!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6222c45-86ad-416a-ac19-19aa483d6186_603x1404.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OowG!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6222c45-86ad-416a-ac19-19aa483d6186_603x1404.png" width="412" height="959.2835820895523" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OowG!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6222c45-86ad-416a-ac19-19aa483d6186_603x1404.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OowG!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6222c45-86ad-416a-ac19-19aa483d6186_603x1404.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OowG!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6222c45-86ad-416a-ac19-19aa483d6186_603x1404.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!OowG!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd6222c45-86ad-416a-ac19-19aa483d6186_603x1404.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong><span>&#8220;NOT HACKED. &#128154;&#127482;&#127480;&#8221; </span></strong><span>The message appeared above a photorealistic image of Trump reenacting the pottery scene from </span><em><span>Ghost</span></em><span> with the beloved DreamWorks ogre. Without missing a beat, Miller pivoted.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;This is a complete nothingburger. Who hasn&#8217;t shipped themselves with a cartoon?&#8221; he said. &#8220;Show me a straight guy who says he isn&#8217;t attracted to Mrs. Incredible and I&#8217;ll show you a liar.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt struggled to account for the posts.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;It&#8217;s a joke or metaphor or-or-or satire,&#8221; she explained. &#8220;Shrek&#8217;s green. It&#8217;s clearly a reference to the Green New Deal, maybe&#8212;whatever. Can we get to a real question?&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Reports from within Pete Hegseth&#8217;s Pentagon suggest several military options were briefly discussed in the hopes that a sufficiently dramatic international incident might change the subject. Sources claim the options ranged between bombing an Iranian school bus and saying &#8220;Whoopsie,&#8221; to deporting detained migrants via catapult.</span></p><p><span>Vice President JD Vance attempted to normalize the situation during an appearance with Tucker Carlson. </span></p><p><span>&#8220;The man is eighty years old. He just discovered AI,&#8221; Vance said. &#8220;It&#8217;s no different than when your grandpa found Minion memes. We just have to pray he&#8217;ll get bored and move on.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>According to aides, however, the president has spent much of the past week enthusiastically discussing Shrek during otherwise unrelated policy meetings.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Shrek&#8217;s a big guy. Strong guy,&#8221; Trump reportedly said during a briefing on trade sanctions. &#8220;Very handsome. Great jawline. Great shoulders. Great forearms. They don&#8217;t make them like Shrek anymore. He&#8217;s Scottish too. You gotta love the Scots. Great accent. Great people.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>The president reportedly smiled to himself before quietly adding, &#8220;I bet he smells like oak.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>The remark was followed by nearly fifteen seconds of complete silence.</span></p><p><span>Officials say the artwork has grown steadily more intimate, including what appears to be an ongoing subplot in which Melania Trump discovers an affair between President Trump and Shrek. Many are speculating that the images coincide with reports that First Lady Melania Trump has not returned to the White House for several months.</span></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BY_N!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F64ae377a-597f-472c-aaed-624868c75a06_768x977.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BY_N!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F64ae377a-597f-472c-aaed-624868c75a06_768x977.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BY_N!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F64ae377a-597f-472c-aaed-624868c75a06_768x977.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BY_N!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F64ae377a-597f-472c-aaed-624868c75a06_768x977.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BY_N!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F64ae377a-597f-472c-aaed-624868c75a06_768x977.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BY_N!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F64ae377a-597f-472c-aaed-624868c75a06_768x977.png" width="328" height="417.2604166666667" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/64ae377a-597f-472c-aaed-624868c75a06_768x977.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:977,&quot;width&quot;:768,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:328,&quot;bytes&quot;:1354128,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/206073071?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3656398a-e494-4c06-a0c7-aa2e7e86d7da_768x1368.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BY_N!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F64ae377a-597f-472c-aaed-624868c75a06_768x977.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BY_N!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F64ae377a-597f-472c-aaed-624868c75a06_768x977.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BY_N!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F64ae377a-597f-472c-aaed-624868c75a06_768x977.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!BY_N!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F64ae377a-597f-472c-aaed-624868c75a06_768x977.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a><figcaption class="image-caption">caption...</figcaption></figure></div><p><span>When asked whether rumors of a life-sized Shrek body pillow inside the Lincoln Bedroom were true, she merely nodded slowly before climbing into a waiting SUV.</span></p><p><span>Political analysts across the cable news landscape continued searching for hidden meaning.</span></p><p><span>CNN spent six straight hours connecting the posts to Trump&#8217;s corruption. &#8220;He promised to drain the swamp,&#8221; explained resident analyst and obvious lizard person James Carville, &#8220;Instead, he&#8217;s clearly fallen in love with the swamp.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Fox News stuck to their usual whataboutism. &#8220;Bill Clinton drew X-rated doodles of Jessica Rabbit on official documents all the time,&#8221; Steve Doocy claimed. &#8220;You never heard a peep from the mainstream media.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>MSNBC responded with&#8230; something. As of posting, we have yet to find an actual viewer of the theoretical cable channel.</span></p><p><span>The revelation has deeply divided the MAGA movement. &#8220;This is obviously trolling,&#8221; insisted one supporter. &#8220;Shrek&#8217;s an ogre. That&#8217;s basically a troll. He&#8217;s Shrek posting.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Another disagreed. &#8220;I&#8217;ve masturbated to Shrek four times this week just trying to get into the president&#8217;s headspace,&#8221; he nodded vigorously, &#8220;...I think I get it now.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Meanwhile, Trump allies have embraced what online supporters are calling </span><strong><span>&#8220;ShrekMaxxing&#8221;</span></strong><span> in an increasingly desperate attempt to curry favor with the president. Elon Musk joined the trend Tuesday afternoon, posting AI-generated images of himself embracing Shrek, apparently believing Trump was attempting to start a meme.</span></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dwlB!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe46cf22e-943d-41ae-b76e-51039a5d80c7_1196x1470.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dwlB!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe46cf22e-943d-41ae-b76e-51039a5d80c7_1196x1470.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dwlB!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe46cf22e-943d-41ae-b76e-51039a5d80c7_1196x1470.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dwlB!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe46cf22e-943d-41ae-b76e-51039a5d80c7_1196x1470.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dwlB!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe46cf22e-943d-41ae-b76e-51039a5d80c7_1196x1470.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dwlB!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe46cf22e-943d-41ae-b76e-51039a5d80c7_1196x1470.png" width="1196" height="1470" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/e46cf22e-943d-41ae-b76e-51039a5d80c7_1196x1470.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1470,&quot;width&quot;:1196,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:880232,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/206073071?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe46cf22e-943d-41ae-b76e-51039a5d80c7_1196x1470.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dwlB!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe46cf22e-943d-41ae-b76e-51039a5d80c7_1196x1470.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dwlB!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe46cf22e-943d-41ae-b76e-51039a5d80c7_1196x1470.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dwlB!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe46cf22e-943d-41ae-b76e-51039a5d80c7_1196x1470.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!dwlB!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe46cf22e-943d-41ae-b76e-51039a5d80c7_1196x1470.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>The president appeared personally offended.</span></p><p><strong><span>&#8220;YOU WISH!!! SHREK DOESN&#8217;T DATE FARQUAADS!!!&#8221;</span></strong><span> Trump posted moments later before announcing the cancellation of several SpaceX contracts, sending the company&#8217;s stock tumbling.</span></p><p><span>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also attempted to insert himself into the discourse.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;President Trump jokes all the time that I resemble Shrek,&#8221; Netanyahu told reporters. &#8220;These beautiful images only reaffirm his unwavering commitment to Israel.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Trump responded within minutes by posting another AI image showing himself and Shrek embracing while Netanyahu plays the cuckolded lover, with the caption,&nbsp;</span><strong><span>&#8220;WITTLE BABY BIBI IS JUST JEALOUS.&#8221;</span></strong></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!efbd!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19f89d21-3a98-4e51-b2e5-92c20168311c_1080x1080.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!efbd!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19f89d21-3a98-4e51-b2e5-92c20168311c_1080x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!efbd!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19f89d21-3a98-4e51-b2e5-92c20168311c_1080x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!efbd!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19f89d21-3a98-4e51-b2e5-92c20168311c_1080x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!efbd!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19f89d21-3a98-4e51-b2e5-92c20168311c_1080x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!efbd!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19f89d21-3a98-4e51-b2e5-92c20168311c_1080x1080.png" width="364" height="364" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/19f89d21-3a98-4e51-b2e5-92c20168311c_1080x1080.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:1080,&quot;width&quot;:1080,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:364,&quot;bytes&quot;:2154769,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/206073071?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19f89d21-3a98-4e51-b2e5-92c20168311c_1080x1080.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!efbd!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19f89d21-3a98-4e51-b2e5-92c20168311c_1080x1080.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!efbd!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19f89d21-3a98-4e51-b2e5-92c20168311c_1080x1080.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!efbd!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19f89d21-3a98-4e51-b2e5-92c20168311c_1080x1080.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!efbd!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F19f89d21-3a98-4e51-b2e5-92c20168311c_1080x1080.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>Not to be left out, even Iran has jumped into the fray, posting a Lego diss track with lyrics such as &#8220;Shrek need an Ayatollah with some rizz, not some pedo president choking on Epstein [expletive].&#8221; </span></p><p><span>If the track was an attempt to strike a nerve, it failed.  Many reports from within the White House claim that Trump turned the video off after only a few seconds and returned to his near-religious viewing of the Shrek franchise</span>. </p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!HQbW!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff83ae104-07b2-4f0f-b51a-c9d67b368e74_1535x1024.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!HQbW!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff83ae104-07b2-4f0f-b51a-c9d67b368e74_1535x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!HQbW!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff83ae104-07b2-4f0f-b51a-c9d67b368e74_1535x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!HQbW!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff83ae104-07b2-4f0f-b51a-c9d67b368e74_1535x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!HQbW!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff83ae104-07b2-4f0f-b51a-c9d67b368e74_1535x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!HQbW!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff83ae104-07b2-4f0f-b51a-c9d67b368e74_1535x1024.png" width="458" height="305.4381868131868" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!HQbW!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff83ae104-07b2-4f0f-b51a-c9d67b368e74_1535x1024.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!HQbW!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff83ae104-07b2-4f0f-b51a-c9d67b368e74_1535x1024.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!HQbW!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff83ae104-07b2-4f0f-b51a-c9d67b368e74_1535x1024.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!HQbW!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff83ae104-07b2-4f0f-b51a-c9d67b368e74_1535x1024.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>Cabinet officials have privately expressed concern over the president&#8217;s growing fixation.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Yesterday we had forty minutes scheduled to discuss tariffs,&#8221; said one aide. &#8220;Thirty-eight of those minutes were devoted to whether DreamWorks should release an adults-only director&#8217;s cut.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Sources inside the meeting say Trump repeatedly insisted,</span></p><p><span>&#8220;I want to see more. Much more. Not too much. Nothing sexual. But some HBO action would be nice. You know... full-frontal Shrek at half-mast. Half-mast is classy. I bet he&#8217;s bigger than Arnold Palmer.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>When reporters later asked whether he had personally generated the artwork, the president smiled coyly.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;A lot of people are making these pictures,&#8221; Trump replied. &#8220;I&#8217;m just sharing them. But whoever made them is a tremendously talented artist. Massively talented.&#8221;</span></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Out of Every Atrocity, Trump is Emotionally Devastated by a Dead Duckling in Reflecting Pool]]></title><description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON, D.C.&#8212; While inspecting the ongoing cleanup, President Donald Trump collapsed into a state of profound grief after discovering a dead duckling floating in the algae-plagued Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/out-of-every-atrocity-trump-is-emotionally</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/out-of-every-atrocity-trump-is-emotionally</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2026 20:02:44 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!RFJr!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F638d7a91-4392-4368-9ee6-7b6a805acc29_3653x2435.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!RFJr!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F638d7a91-4392-4368-9ee6-7b6a805acc29_3653x2435.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!RFJr!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F638d7a91-4392-4368-9ee6-7b6a805acc29_3653x2435.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!RFJr!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F638d7a91-4392-4368-9ee6-7b6a805acc29_3653x2435.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!RFJr!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F638d7a91-4392-4368-9ee6-7b6a805acc29_3653x2435.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!RFJr!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F638d7a91-4392-4368-9ee6-7b6a805acc29_3653x2435.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!RFJr!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F638d7a91-4392-4368-9ee6-7b6a805acc29_3653x2435.png" width="1456" height="971" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/638d7a91-4392-4368-9ee6-7b6a805acc29_3653x2435.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:971,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:9055228,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/203446464?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F638d7a91-4392-4368-9ee6-7b6a805acc29_3653x2435.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!RFJr!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F638d7a91-4392-4368-9ee6-7b6a805acc29_3653x2435.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!RFJr!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F638d7a91-4392-4368-9ee6-7b6a805acc29_3653x2435.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!RFJr!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F638d7a91-4392-4368-9ee6-7b6a805acc29_3653x2435.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!RFJr!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F638d7a91-4392-4368-9ee6-7b6a805acc29_3653x2435.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><span>WASHINGTON, D.C.&#8212; While inspecting the ongoing cleanup, President Donald Trump collapsed into a state of profound grief after discovering a dead duckling floating in the algae-plagued Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.</span></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p><span>Reporters say the president was mid-rant when he spotted the small yellow body drifting near the shoreline. He trailed off and let out a low, trembling moan.</span></p><p><span>Pushing reporters aside, Trump waded into the pool and dropped to his knees in the waist-deep water. Cradling the duckling against his chest, the president began loudly sobbing and demanding to know who was responsible.</span></p><p><span>A shaken representative of the National Parks Service replied, &#8220;You ordered us to dump chemicals in, sir&#8230; to kill the algae.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>And for the first time in recorded history, Trump did not try to downplay, lie, or blame someone else. In a move that has left the entire political world shaken to its very core, President Donald Trump did the unthinkable:</span></p><p><span>He took full responsibility.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;What have I done?&#8221; Trump cried. &#8220;Oh God. What have I done?&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Administration officials described the scene as unprecedented, given his usual sociopathic response to death and destruction.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;When we told him we&#8217;d bombed a school in Tehran, he just blinked, then asked if anyone in the room saw that morning&#8217;s Fox and Friends,&#8221; said one unnamed official. &#8220;175 people died, mostly children, and all he wanted was the name of &#8216;the blondie next to Doocy.&#8217; Then one baby duck dies and he&#8217;s openly weeping for days.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Sources say that when Stephen Miller allegedly referred to the duckling as &#8220;just a bird,&#8221; the president hurled his phone across the room, striking his advisor in the eye. Trump then berated Miller with such intensity that Miller reportedly required a change of trousers. While other outlets have independently verified the claim to be true, it remains unclear whether Miller voided his bladder or his bowels, with some sources suggesting a combination of the two.</span></p><p><span>When asked to comment on the president&#8217;s apparent grief, Melania Trump told reporters: &#8220;When you look into the eyes of Donald, you know who you are.&#8221; Her trademark monotone left many wondering if it was a statement or a plea for help. &#8220;We are all meat to those eyes. He will consume us all. But not the baby ducks. Never the baby ducks.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;I was there the first time he saw the video of that ICE shooting.&#8221; said White House Director of Communications Dan Scavino. &#8220;We had to stop him from rating it five stars on Letterboxd. But this duck? I don&#8217;t know what the hell is going on.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Over the years, aides say they have come to rely on the president remaining largely unfazed by human suffering. Now the administration worries that what they call &#8220;the duck situation&#8221; might be some  troubling form of human empathy.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;We&#8217;ve come to expect him to glaze over casualty estimates. We always figured the numbers were just too big for him to visualize,&#8221; said one Pentagon official. &#8220;Hundreds dead? Thousands? Doesn&#8217;t move the needle. But one dead duck and the whole machine grinds to a halt.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>&#8220;I just want my president back,&#8221; said a bereft Pete Hegseth. &#8220;The one who&#8217;d watch a drone strike while sucking the meat off a KFC drumstick. Now we have to send the EPA to do an environmental report on the Area of Operation before he&#8217;ll greenlight an op. He won&#8217;t move until there&#8217;s a guarantee there are no ducks in the area.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Many analysts now believe Iran&#8217;s surging imports of Peking ducks from China are the primary motivation behind most of the United States&#8217; recent concessions. Every strategic bombing location is now reportedly ringed with hundreds of waddling birds.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Supreme Leader Khamenei was walking around right in the open. We could&#8217;ve taken him out and ended the regime right there,&#8221; complained Benjamin Netanyahu. &#8220;But the bastard was openly taunting us with a duckling in each hand, and President Trump said &#8216;no.&#8217; Swore he&#8217;d turn Tel Aviv into a crater if we hurt those damn ducks.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Cabinet officials reportedly reached out to psychologists, family, and close associates in an attempt to understand why this particular death has left the president immobilized. Many responded that one cannot become close to a void. All who glimpse the thing beneath the mask return diminished. To feel your own soul wither in his presence is to understand a darkness older than the nameless ones.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Yeah. He never liked cats, or dogs, or kids. Even his own children,&#8221; Ivanka Trump reportedly told aides. &#8220;Basically, anything that requires you to be capable of love and affection. Ducks were the only exception.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>Internet sleuths have pointed to a portion of Michael Wolff&#8217;s interviews with Jeffrey Epstein&#8212;Trump&#8217;s self-described &#8220;ride or die bestie bitch&#8221;&#8212;as a potential clue.</span></p><p><span>&#8220;Anything duck-related, Donald would get that look, like you just hit a traumatic core memory, you know?&#8221; explained Epstein. &#8220;And believe me, I know childhood trauma. It&#8217;s kind of my whole brand.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>During the G7 conference, the president appeared to hint at a possible childhood source of the fixation. &#8220;They used to call me Donald Duck,&#8221; Trump said unexpectedly to the British PM. &#8220;And kids can be very cruel. Very cruel.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>The president then fell silent. When reporters pressed for details, Trump stared off into the distance before quietly adding: &#8220;My father handled it.&#8221;</span></p><p><span>The White House later declined to elaborate.</span></p><p><span>At press time, the duckling was lying in state beneath the Capitol Rotunda, and flags nationwide remain at half-staff.</span></p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[In Stunning Plot Twist, Congress Discovers Mitch McConnell Was Dead This Entire Time]]></title><description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON, D.C.&#8212; Congress was left reeling after maintenance workers discovered a mummified corpse inside a cramped crawlspace beneath the Capitol building belonging to Mitch McConnell.]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/in-stunning-plot-twist-congress-discovers</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/in-stunning-plot-twist-congress-discovers</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 18 Jun 2026 16:40:57 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Us3O!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F348d7cfe-5c1d-4f56-8165-5e4c63332a3d_1322x882.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Us3O!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F348d7cfe-5c1d-4f56-8165-5e4c63332a3d_1322x882.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Us3O!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F348d7cfe-5c1d-4f56-8165-5e4c63332a3d_1322x882.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Us3O!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F348d7cfe-5c1d-4f56-8165-5e4c63332a3d_1322x882.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Us3O!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F348d7cfe-5c1d-4f56-8165-5e4c63332a3d_1322x882.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Us3O!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F348d7cfe-5c1d-4f56-8165-5e4c63332a3d_1322x882.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Us3O!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F348d7cfe-5c1d-4f56-8165-5e4c63332a3d_1322x882.png" width="1322" height="882" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/348d7cfe-5c1d-4f56-8165-5e4c63332a3d_1322x882.png&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:882,&quot;width&quot;:1322,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:2236349,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/png&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/202469017?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F348d7cfe-5c1d-4f56-8165-5e4c63332a3d_1322x882.png&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Us3O!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F348d7cfe-5c1d-4f56-8165-5e4c63332a3d_1322x882.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Us3O!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F348d7cfe-5c1d-4f56-8165-5e4c63332a3d_1322x882.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Us3O!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F348d7cfe-5c1d-4f56-8165-5e4c63332a3d_1322x882.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Us3O!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F348d7cfe-5c1d-4f56-8165-5e4c63332a3d_1322x882.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>WASHINGTON, D.C.&#8212; Congress was left reeling after maintenance workers discovered a mummified corpse inside a cramped crawlspace beneath the Capitol building belonging to Mitch McConnell.</p><p>After forensic investigators concluded that the former Senate Majority Leader had likely been dead for decades, a chill went through the Legislative Branch as lawmakers began questioning who&#8212;or what&#8212;had actually been guiding Senate Republicans all these years.</p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe now&quot;,&quot;action&quot;:null,&quot;class&quot;:null}" data-component-name="ButtonCreateButton"><a class="button primary" href="https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p>&#8220;Mitch freezing in place. The vacant thousand-yard stare as he listened to the screams of the damned. All those times his incorporeal form passed through my body in the hallway,&#8221; muttered Ted Cruz. &#8220;I can&#8217;t believe we didn&#8217;t realize it sooner.&#8221;</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!donx!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae1f2d4b-f1cc-45cb-9fae-5bcb2c1f69e8_3000x1688.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!donx!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae1f2d4b-f1cc-45cb-9fae-5bcb2c1f69e8_3000x1688.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!donx!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae1f2d4b-f1cc-45cb-9fae-5bcb2c1f69e8_3000x1688.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!donx!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae1f2d4b-f1cc-45cb-9fae-5bcb2c1f69e8_3000x1688.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!donx!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae1f2d4b-f1cc-45cb-9fae-5bcb2c1f69e8_3000x1688.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!donx!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae1f2d4b-f1cc-45cb-9fae-5bcb2c1f69e8_3000x1688.jpeg" width="450" height="253.125" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/ae1f2d4b-f1cc-45cb-9fae-5bcb2c1f69e8_3000x1688.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:819,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:450,&quot;bytes&quot;:3237239,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/202469017?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae1f2d4b-f1cc-45cb-9fae-5bcb2c1f69e8_3000x1688.jpeg&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!donx!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae1f2d4b-f1cc-45cb-9fae-5bcb2c1f69e8_3000x1688.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!donx!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae1f2d4b-f1cc-45cb-9fae-5bcb2c1f69e8_3000x1688.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!donx!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae1f2d4b-f1cc-45cb-9fae-5bcb2c1f69e8_3000x1688.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!donx!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fae1f2d4b-f1cc-45cb-9fae-5bcb2c1f69e8_3000x1688.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Sources now believe McConnell&#8217;s death occurred sometime during the Obama administration, when the future Senate leader allegedly crawled beneath the Senate floor to avoid reporters asking whether Republicans had an actual healthcare plan beyond &#8220;No.&#8221;</p><p>Evidence suggests McConnell spent his final days desperately pounding on the underside of the chamber while Republican senators debated the Affordable Care Act directly above him.</p><p>&#8220;We all heard the knocking,&#8221; admitted Tea Party Senator Ron Johnson. &#8220;Every now and then we&#8217;d hear his faint voice encouraging us to keep talking about &#8216;Death Panels&#8212;&#8217;&#8221;</p><p>The congressman paused.</p><p>&#8220;Oh my God.&#8221;</p><p>Witnesses said Johnson began visibly shaking.</p><p>&#8220;I thought he was saying &#8216;<em>Death Panels</em>.&#8217; He was saying, &#8216;I&#8217;m starving to <em>death</em>. Open the <em>panel</em>.&#8217;&#8221;</p><p>No one questioned when McConnell inexplicably returned to haunt the legislative process through arcane procedural maneuvers, occasionally materializing at press conferences to announce that Obama&#8217;s latest nominee for deputy assistant undersecretary of whatever would receive a vote &#8220;over my dead body.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;At no point did anyone think to check whether he was alive,&#8221; admitted one longtime Republican staffer. &#8220;In fairness, he always looked like that.&#8221;</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SNk2!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9815d73a-b372-4f51-9fb8-fc1dfe4f7b18_1536x1152.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SNk2!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9815d73a-b372-4f51-9fb8-fc1dfe4f7b18_1536x1152.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SNk2!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9815d73a-b372-4f51-9fb8-fc1dfe4f7b18_1536x1152.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SNk2!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9815d73a-b372-4f51-9fb8-fc1dfe4f7b18_1536x1152.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SNk2!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9815d73a-b372-4f51-9fb8-fc1dfe4f7b18_1536x1152.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SNk2!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9815d73a-b372-4f51-9fb8-fc1dfe4f7b18_1536x1152.jpeg" width="494" height="370.5" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SNk2!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9815d73a-b372-4f51-9fb8-fc1dfe4f7b18_1536x1152.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SNk2!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9815d73a-b372-4f51-9fb8-fc1dfe4f7b18_1536x1152.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SNk2!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9815d73a-b372-4f51-9fb8-fc1dfe4f7b18_1536x1152.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SNk2!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9815d73a-b372-4f51-9fb8-fc1dfe4f7b18_1536x1152.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>Analysts now believe many of McConnell&#8217;s most controversial actions make significantly more sense when viewed through the lens of a tortured soul.</p><p>&#8220;Political scientists have always struggled to understand what motivated him,&#8221; said Georgetown professor Elaine Mercer. &#8220;But once you accept that he was a restless spirit consumed by spite and denied the peace of the afterlife, the current makeup of the supreme court suddenly clicks into place if you view it as a curse.&#8221;</p><p>Several senators reported experiencing an immediate sense of relief after the remains were removed from the building.</p><p>&#8220;For years I&#8217;d find myself voting against my constituents and then wonder why,&#8221; said Senator Susan Collins. &#8220;Turns out I was being possessed by an evil spirit.&#8221;</p><p>Several Republican congressmen nodded their heads in agreement. Many more have now taken to twitter to blame supernatural possession for their steadfast support for the unpopular wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Iran.</p><p>Others described feeling McConnell&#8217;s lingering presence throughout the complex.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;d constantly catch glimpses of him at the end of hallways, staring blankly with trembling lips, whispering something about the national deficit,&#8221; said Senator Bernie Sanders. &#8220;Then I&#8217;d turn around and nobody would be there.&#8221;</p><p>Republican leadership has reportedly asked Democratic lawmakers to assist in cleansing the Senate chamber using crystals, sage, moon water, Ouija, and whatever else &#8220;pagan hippy shit&#8221; Democrats allegedly do.</p><p>President Trump appeared similarly unsettled by the findings.</p><p>&#8220;Is that why he kept showing up in my bedroom every Christmas Eve?&#8221; Trump asked reporters. &#8220;He kept trying to show me the past, and I kept telling him I already have all the seasons of Apprentice on DVD.&#8221;</p><p>At press time, White House assured voters that Necromancer Stephen Miller was already hard at work using the forces of the undead to wrangle Republicans back in line.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!oGoS!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcd61aafa-4ae7-4bf1-9226-61eca612f1fc_1450x1321.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!oGoS!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcd61aafa-4ae7-4bf1-9226-61eca612f1fc_1450x1321.png 424w, 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stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Freedom 250 UFC Event Causes Founding Fathers To Spin In Graves, Vastly Exceeding Renewable Energy Projections]]></title><description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON, D.C.&#8212; Officials at the Department of Energy announced Monday that Freedom 250, the crypto-sponsored backyard wrestling event staged on the White House lawn, had caused the Founding Fathers to spin in their graves with enough rotational force to power the entire Eastern Seaboard.]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/freedom-250-ufc-event-causes-founding</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/freedom-250-ufc-event-causes-founding</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2026 23:30:51 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nppK!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F889a1eb8-acab-40ca-a860-5ac2f4b7087b_780x439.jpeg" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nppK!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F889a1eb8-acab-40ca-a860-5ac2f4b7087b_780x439.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nppK!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F889a1eb8-acab-40ca-a860-5ac2f4b7087b_780x439.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nppK!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F889a1eb8-acab-40ca-a860-5ac2f4b7087b_780x439.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nppK!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F889a1eb8-acab-40ca-a860-5ac2f4b7087b_780x439.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nppK!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F889a1eb8-acab-40ca-a860-5ac2f4b7087b_780x439.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nppK!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F889a1eb8-acab-40ca-a860-5ac2f4b7087b_780x439.jpeg" width="780" height="439" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/889a1eb8-acab-40ca-a860-5ac2f4b7087b_780x439.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:439,&quot;width&quot;:780,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:82421,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/202204921?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F889a1eb8-acab-40ca-a860-5ac2f4b7087b_780x439.jpeg&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nppK!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F889a1eb8-acab-40ca-a860-5ac2f4b7087b_780x439.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nppK!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F889a1eb8-acab-40ca-a860-5ac2f4b7087b_780x439.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nppK!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F889a1eb8-acab-40ca-a860-5ac2f4b7087b_780x439.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nppK!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F889a1eb8-acab-40ca-a860-5ac2f4b7087b_780x439.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p>WASHINGTON, D.C.&#8212; Officials at the Department of Energy announced Monday that Freedom 250, the crypto-sponsored backyard wrestling event staged on the White House lawn, had caused the Founding Fathers to spin in their graves with enough rotational force to power the entire Eastern Seaboard.</p><p>The Founding Fathers Rotational Energy Initiative reportedly began late in the Biden administration after engineers noticed a steady, low-grade hum coming from Mount Vernon and Monticello.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>&#8220;Normally, the founders spin in their graves in short bursts,&#8221; explained Department of Energy technician Raymond Keller, &#8220;You get a little movement from gerrymandering, a decent turn every time Justice Clarence Thomas went on vacation, maybe a few rotations whenever Congress pretends insider trading was complicated. Then Trump 2.0 came along&#8221;</p><p>The founding fathers&#8217; RPM steadily increased as it became clear that Donald Trump, a man on trial for attempting to overturn an election, was somehow evading prosecution by becoming the next democratically elected president.</p><p>&#8220;At first, we thought it was only temporary, but the current administration has kept them consistently turning over in their graves,&#8221; said Raymond Keller, standing beside a live power readout labeled MADISON TURBINE. &#8220;When Trump appointed his personal lawyer as Acting Attorney General, Jefferson increased to roughly 400 RPM. By the time he pardoned the January 6th rioters, Franklin was producing enough voltage to run a Waffle House.&#8221;</p><p>According to official documents, the energy program involved attaching industrial magnets and copper coils to the remains of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Franklin, and several additional founders whose names are now mostly used by men in bow ties to justify child labor.</p><p>According to internal DOE projections, the Trump administration&#8217;s routine constitutional violations, billionaire influence, and near-constant executive-branch corruption were expected to yield a reliable but modest stream of power.</p><p>However, not every founder responded to each event in the same way.</p><p>&#8220;Thomas Jefferson experienced a measurable slowdown during the Epstein files scandal. At first, we thought the sensors were malfunctioning. Then someone remembered Sally Hemings, the sixteen-year-old Jefferson trafficked to France, and the numbers suddenly made perfect sense.&#8221;</p><p>Officials believed the system could eventually supply electricity to several federal buildings that had not yet been converted into Amazon warehouses or Chick-fil-A franchises.</p><p>Then Freedom 250 happened.</p><p>&#8220;We first noticed the output spike during the fighter walkouts. Escorting those shirtless, tatted-up men in their underwear through the White House, where presidents traditionally host foreign dignitaries and heads of state, and setting it all to Kid Rock music?&#8221; Keller said, before letting out a long whistle. &#8220;Benjamin Franklin started spinning so fast his corpse entered an entirely new state of matter. Christ Church in Philadelphia almost became the next Chornobyl.&#8221;</p><p>Researchers initially assumed the explosive increase was tied to the event&#8217;s numerous ethical concerns: conflicts of interest, billionaire access, and reports alleging that Eric Trump sought insider information related to the fights.</p><p>The data suggested otherwise.</p><p>&#8220;It appears that even the founders have grown numb to Trump&#8217;s antics,&#8221; Keller said. &#8220;What they seem unable to process is the <strong>sheer ratchetness</strong> of that event.&#8221;</p><p>The evening&#8217;s largest surge came after UFC fighter Josh Hokit used his post-fight interview to yell that Michelle Obama was a man, prompting George Washington&#8217;s corpse to spin so violently that technicians had to cool the Mount Vernon facility with water from the Potomac.</p><p>&#8220;During the motorcycle stunt performance, Alexander Hamilton briefly achieved fusion,&#8221; Keller said. &#8220;Not because of the corruption, the violence, or the gambling. Just the realization that this hillbilly shit was how the American President chose to celebrate 250 years of the republic.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;We estimate Freedom 250 generated more energy than the previous eighteen months of the second Trump administration combined,&#8221; Keller said.</p><p>The Department of Energy briefly celebrated the breakthrough, hypothesizing that if Trump attempted a third term, it could allow the nation to achieve full energy independence by 2030.</p><p>However, the Founding Fathers Rotational Energy Initiative was reportedly canceled hours later after President Trump learned it qualified as renewable energy.</p><p>&#8220;Green energy is a disaster,&#8221; Trump said in a statement. &#8220;I don&#8217;t care if George Washington personally powers half the Eastern Seaboard by spinning in his grave. It&#8217;s very weak. Very woke. We&#8217;re not doing it.&#8221;</p><p>At press time, DOE officials were reportedly reclassifying the project as &#8220;Freedom Coal.&#8221; Plans are currently underway to exhume the Founding Fathers so their corpses can be burned during the White House&#8217;s upcoming July 4th pig roast and wet T-shirt contest.</p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Hollywood Finally Admits They Just Really Hate Gingers]]></title><description><![CDATA[After years of accusations that the industry was pushing a &#8220;woke agenda,&#8221; Hollywood executives came clean, admitting the real motivation behind casting decisions was far simpler.]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/hollywood-finally-admits-they-just</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/hollywood-finally-admits-they-just</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2026 23:43:41 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zs6k!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F02321c0b-e98b-437b-ad87-e46a0dc59278_2560x1440.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zs6k!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F02321c0b-e98b-437b-ad87-e46a0dc59278_2560x1440.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zs6k!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F02321c0b-e98b-437b-ad87-e46a0dc59278_2560x1440.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zs6k!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F02321c0b-e98b-437b-ad87-e46a0dc59278_2560x1440.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zs6k!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F02321c0b-e98b-437b-ad87-e46a0dc59278_2560x1440.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zs6k!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F02321c0b-e98b-437b-ad87-e46a0dc59278_2560x1440.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zs6k!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F02321c0b-e98b-437b-ad87-e46a0dc59278_2560x1440.png" width="1456" height="819" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zs6k!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F02321c0b-e98b-437b-ad87-e46a0dc59278_2560x1440.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zs6k!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F02321c0b-e98b-437b-ad87-e46a0dc59278_2560x1440.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zs6k!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F02321c0b-e98b-437b-ad87-e46a0dc59278_2560x1440.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zs6k!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F02321c0b-e98b-437b-ad87-e46a0dc59278_2560x1440.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>After years of accusations that the industry was pushing a &#8220;woke agenda,&#8221; Hollywood executives came clean, admitting the real motivation behind casting decisions was far simpler.</p><p>&#8220;Annie became a spunky Black girl to correct a grave injustice,&#8221; said Columbia Pictures casting director Lisa Cho, dry-heaving as she drove past a Wendy&#8217;s. &#8220;It wasn&#8217;t about race. It was about keeping those sun-poisoned circus children off the big screen.&#8221;</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-4BR!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F87de4407-007b-448d-b595-0a9ea5f24221_500x500.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-4BR!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F87de4407-007b-448d-b595-0a9ea5f24221_500x500.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-4BR!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F87de4407-007b-448d-b595-0a9ea5f24221_500x500.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-4BR!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F87de4407-007b-448d-b595-0a9ea5f24221_500x500.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-4BR!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F87de4407-007b-448d-b595-0a9ea5f24221_500x500.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-4BR!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F87de4407-007b-448d-b595-0a9ea5f24221_500x500.jpeg" width="500" height="500" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-4BR!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F87de4407-007b-448d-b595-0a9ea5f24221_500x500.jpeg 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-4BR!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F87de4407-007b-448d-b595-0a9ea5f24221_500x500.jpeg 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-4BR!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F87de4407-007b-448d-b595-0a9ea5f24221_500x500.jpeg 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-4BR!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F87de4407-007b-448d-b595-0a9ea5f24221_500x500.jpeg 1456w" sizes="100vw"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>According to insiders, production companies have spent years quietly referring to what they call <strong>&#8220;The Ginger Problem.&#8221;</strong></p><p>One Disney memo warned of the industry&#8217;s eventual collapse, baselessly blaming declining box-office revenue on audience exposure to &#8220;Irish jump scares.&#8221; The report further recommended that the MPAA classify all on-screen ginger representation as R-rated, citing the risk that children might &#8220;mistake their inferior ginger genes as a viable human aesthetic.&#8221;</p><p>The memo further reinterpreted cinema history through what executives call &#8220;The Follicles of the MGM Lion,&#8221; a fringe theory claiming that passing gingers infiltrated the early Technicolor process and secretly engineered color standards to favor pale skin and bright reds.</p><p>&#8220;They want you to think early Hollywood had a racism problem,&#8221; said veteran producer Martin Gold. &#8220;But follow the red hair. The same lighting standards that elevated ginger left Black performers underlit for decades. Hollywood was built on ginger supremacy.&#8221;</p><p>The purge has reportedly been systematic. Mary Jane Watson, Starfire, Jimmy Olsen, Batgirl, Ariel and April O&#8217;Neil. One by one, iconic red-haired characters have been recast as anything but ginger.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!X06a!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc7e0b524-7ff9-49e9-9766-5246ea63f774_1500x844.webp" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!X06a!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc7e0b524-7ff9-49e9-9766-5246ea63f774_1500x844.webp 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!X06a!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc7e0b524-7ff9-49e9-9766-5246ea63f774_1500x844.webp 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!X06a!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc7e0b524-7ff9-49e9-9766-5246ea63f774_1500x844.webp 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!X06a!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc7e0b524-7ff9-49e9-9766-5246ea63f774_1500x844.webp 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!X06a!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc7e0b524-7ff9-49e9-9766-5246ea63f774_1500x844.webp" width="1456" height="819" data-attrs="{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/c7e0b524-7ff9-49e9-9766-5246ea63f774_1500x844.webp&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:819,&quot;width&quot;:1456,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:69736,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image/webp&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:true,&quot;topImage&quot;:false,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/i/201223192?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc7e0b524-7ff9-49e9-9766-5246ea63f774_1500x844.webp&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}" class="sizing-normal" alt="" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!X06a!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc7e0b524-7ff9-49e9-9766-5246ea63f774_1500x844.webp 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!X06a!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc7e0b524-7ff9-49e9-9766-5246ea63f774_1500x844.webp 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!X06a!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc7e0b524-7ff9-49e9-9766-5246ea63f774_1500x844.webp 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!X06a!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc7e0b524-7ff9-49e9-9766-5246ea63f774_1500x844.webp 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t even look at the script,&#8221; said Idris, regarding his portrayal of Man-at-Arms in the live-action He-Man, &#8220;They just showed me that ginger cunt&#8217;s bloody mustache and I signed on.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Every single redheaded character is a ticking time bomb,&#8221; said a Disney insider. &#8220;If you don&#8217;t replace them, you risk some daywalker getting famous, then they&#8217;ll star in other roles and create more ginger characters. We learned from our mistakes with Molly Ringwald; we won&#8217;t repeat them again.&#8221;</p><p>He then tented his fingers and turned in his chair to resume glaring at a headshot of Sophia Lillis.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eK4_!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6a5bd9e3-3868-4002-bbd2-66a59a44c071_1440x1440.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eK4_!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6a5bd9e3-3868-4002-bbd2-66a59a44c071_1440x1440.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eK4_!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6a5bd9e3-3868-4002-bbd2-66a59a44c071_1440x1440.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eK4_!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6a5bd9e3-3868-4002-bbd2-66a59a44c071_1440x1440.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eK4_!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6a5bd9e3-3868-4002-bbd2-66a59a44c071_1440x1440.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eK4_!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6a5bd9e3-3868-4002-bbd2-66a59a44c071_1440x1440.png" width="1440" height="1440" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eK4_!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6a5bd9e3-3868-4002-bbd2-66a59a44c071_1440x1440.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eK4_!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6a5bd9e3-3868-4002-bbd2-66a59a44c071_1440x1440.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eK4_!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6a5bd9e3-3868-4002-bbd2-66a59a44c071_1440x1440.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!eK4_!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6a5bd9e3-3868-4002-bbd2-66a59a44c071_1440x1440.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p><p>&#8220;We have nothing against gingers as people,&#8221; said Bob Iger, head of Disney. &#8220;Just gingers as people on screen. Also, the concept that gingers are people.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re being systematically removed from popular media,&#8221; said Brian O&#8217;Malley of the Red-Headed Heritage Council. &#8220;First, they came for Ariel, and I did not speak out, because I was not a mermaid. Then they came from Mary Jane, and I did not speak out, because everyone loves Zendaya. Then they&#8212;&#8221;</p><p>Unfortunately, O&#8217;Malley was forced to cut the interview short after suffering third-degree sunburns while walking between buildings. He remains in the burn ward under a medically induced coma.</p><p>At press time, DreamWorks proudly announced that the Gingerbread Man in the upcoming Shrek sequel would be portrayed by a Puerto Rican sugar cookie named Manny Mantecadito after early test screenings reportedly left several executives visibly distressed upon simply hearing the word &#8220;ginger.&#8221;</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!odTz!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F46ced016-73d6-4002-a0d8-cf767c018340_640x818.webp" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!odTz!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F46ced016-73d6-4002-a0d8-cf767c018340_640x818.webp 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!odTz!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F46ced016-73d6-4002-a0d8-cf767c018340_640x818.webp 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!odTz!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F46ced016-73d6-4002-a0d8-cf767c018340_640x818.webp 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!odTz!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F46ced016-73d6-4002-a0d8-cf767c018340_640x818.webp 1456w" sizes="100vw" loading="lazy"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div 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stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Child Psychologists Recommend Bringing Back Bullying After Visiting Furry Convention]]></title><description><![CDATA[INDIANAPOLIS, IN&#8212; After attending Midwest FurFest as part of what they described as a &#8220;fact-finding mission into the furry youth contagion,&#8221; a coalition of child psychologists announced Monday that schools should immediately bring back bullying.]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/child-psychologists-recommend-bringing</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/child-psychologists-recommend-bringing</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 04 Jun 2026 20:47:55 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0wcg!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f6e61e7-e335-4afc-b97c-6dd7c0964020_500x376.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0wcg!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f6e61e7-e335-4afc-b97c-6dd7c0964020_500x376.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0wcg!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f6e61e7-e335-4afc-b97c-6dd7c0964020_500x376.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0wcg!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f6e61e7-e335-4afc-b97c-6dd7c0964020_500x376.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0wcg!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f6e61e7-e335-4afc-b97c-6dd7c0964020_500x376.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0wcg!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f6e61e7-e335-4afc-b97c-6dd7c0964020_500x376.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img 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srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0wcg!,w_424,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f6e61e7-e335-4afc-b97c-6dd7c0964020_500x376.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0wcg!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f6e61e7-e335-4afc-b97c-6dd7c0964020_500x376.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0wcg!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f6e61e7-e335-4afc-b97c-6dd7c0964020_500x376.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0wcg!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2f6e61e7-e335-4afc-b97c-6dd7c0964020_500x376.png 1456w" sizes="100vw" fetchpriority="high"></picture><div class="image-link-expand"><div class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p>INDIANAPOLIS, IN&#8212; After attending Midwest FurFest as part of what they described as a &#8220;fact-finding mission into the furry youth contagion,&#8221; a coalition of child psychologists announced Monday that schools should immediately bring back bullying.</p><p>&#8220;We went in with open minds,&#8221; said developmental psychologist Dr. Helen Braddock, &#8220;But after seeing a 16-year-old &#8216;fox boy&#8217; explain his &#8216;fursona&#8217; to a middle-aged &#8216;dragonkin,&#8217; we realized society may have overcorrected.&#8221;</p><p>The group&#8217;s report, titled <strong>Bullying: Seriously, Bring It Back</strong>, argues that decades of anti-bullying campaigns have unintentionally created an environment where &#8220;any passing adolescent impulse is allowed to harden into some really weird shit,&#8221; providing a linked Google search for &#8220;scritching&#8221; as evidence in the footnotes.</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>&#8220;For generations, mild but sustained peer cruelty served an important developmental function,&#8221; Braddock said. &#8220;It taught children which behaviors were charmingly eccentric, and which were socially unwise. Without bullying, we&#8217;ve normalized walking around in a $4,000 raccoon suit with cooling fans.&#8221;</p><p>The group&#8217;s initial experiments at the convention reportedly proved extremely successful.</p><p>&#8220;A single controlled swirlie was enough to make one youth remove his cat ears and go home,&#8221; said Dr. Warren Pike. &#8220;After a follow-up session with the same patient, conducted inside the cramped, highly structured environment of his locker, we successfully redirected his interest toward learning karate, a socially acceptable group hobby.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a classic social contagion,&#8221; Pike later claimed on The Joe Rogan Experience. &#8220;So many of these confused kids are identifying as wolf-boys, when in previous generations, they would&#8217;ve just been thespians.&#8221;</p><p>Pike added that the problem can escalate quickly if left untreated. &#8220;One kid shows up to lunch wearing a fox tail, and without the intervention of a bully, within six months the entire friend group is reading Omegaverse lit-erotica.&#8221;</p><p>Several parents of furry children have found themselves out of their depth.</p><p>&#8220;I look at the neighbors and their beautiful trans daughter, and I feel envious,&#8221; said Indiana mother Linda Morley. &#8220;Why can&#8217;t I have that? That makes sense. But this?&#8221; She sighed and went back to combing through a kiddie pool filled with kitty litter. &#8220;Maybe I just didn&#8217;t spank him enough.&#8221;</p><p>Several schools have already begun testing pilot programs designed to reintroduce bullying in what administrators describe as a &#8220;nonviolent, but still traumatic&#8221; method. One charter school in Phoenix has hired a rotating team of catty gay men to patrol the halls and deliver emotionally devastating remarks to students before abnormal behavior can fully calcify.</p><p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t want anyone getting an atomic wedgie,&#8221; said Principal Darren Kell. &#8220;That&#8217;s outdated. But if a student walks in wearing a Twilight Sparkle unicorn onesie, we do want a 32-year-old drag queen to look them up and down and say, &#8216;Yeah&#8230; no, girl. Go home and don&#8217;t come back until you find some taste.&#8217;&#8221;</p><p>Early data from the program appear promising. One sophomore reportedly removed his fox ears and tail after a hallway monitor told him, &#8220;Honey, we&#8217;re not in Sherwood Forest, and you&#8217;ve got the body shape of Little John, not Robin Hood. Do better.&#8221;</p><p>Another student abandoned plans to attend FurCon after being informed that his wolf name, &#8220;Shadowfang,&#8221; sounded like &#8220;a discontinued vape flavor,&#8221; followed by a prolonged eye roll and the groaned remark, &#8220;Oh my gaaaaawd, this place.&#8221;</p><p>Some parents have already embraced the idea.</p><p>&#8220;My son came home saying he was a pansexual snow leopard named Kairo,&#8221; said parent Sara Cho. &#8220;But after three carefully worded insults from the school&#8217;s new peer realism specialist, he was back to being a pansexual playing Minecraft. I got my boy back.&#8221;</p><p>Yesterday, representatives from the furry community pushed back during a tense Q&amp;A with Dr. Helen Braddock at Butler University, arguing that young people deserve safe spaces to explore identity without mockery or shame. Dr. Braddock then acknowledged their concern by threatening to punch the two adult representatives in the face, followed by hitting them twice in the arm for flinching.</p><p>The two furries immediately stormed out of the lecture hall to sustained, rolling laughter from the crowd.</p><p>Their fennec fox and husky costumes were later found stuffed in a recycle bin inside the student union.</p><div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!qCLq!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F016a3849-5a2e-48f4-893e-795d9168c5b3_507x690.webp" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" 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stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p></p>]]></content:encoded></item><item><title><![CDATA[Pride Month Spotlight: Obsession Finally Makes Psychosexual Community Feel Seen]]></title><description><![CDATA[BROOKLYN, NY&#8212; Following the breakout success of Obsession, members of the growing psychosexual community say they have finally found the representation they&#8217;ve been waiting for.]]></description><link>https://www.kevinkane.net/p/pride-month-spotlight-obsession-finally</link><guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.kevinkane.net/p/pride-month-spotlight-obsession-finally</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Kevin Kane]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 03 Jun 2026 12:03:43 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wKT1!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb69b4a9e-88fb-45c0-9085-1e89931b7b44_1672x941.png" length="0" type="image/jpeg"/><content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="captioned-image-container"><figure><a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wKT1!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb69b4a9e-88fb-45c0-9085-1e89931b7b44_1672x941.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM"><div class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wKT1!,w_424,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb69b4a9e-88fb-45c0-9085-1e89931b7b44_1672x941.png 424w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wKT1!,w_848,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb69b4a9e-88fb-45c0-9085-1e89931b7b44_1672x941.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wKT1!,w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb69b4a9e-88fb-45c0-9085-1e89931b7b44_1672x941.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wKT1!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb69b4a9e-88fb-45c0-9085-1e89931b7b44_1672x941.png 1456w" sizes="100vw"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wKT1!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb69b4a9e-88fb-45c0-9085-1e89931b7b44_1672x941.png" width="1456" height="819" 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class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset"><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container restack-image"><svg aria-hidden="true" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20" fill="none" stroke-width="1.5" stroke="var(--color-fg-primary)" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M2.53001 7.81595C3.49179 4.73911 6.43281 2.5 9.91173 2.5C13.1684 2.5 15.9537 4.46214 17.0852 7.23684L17.6179 8.67647M17.6179 8.67647L18.5002 4.26471M17.6179 8.67647L13.6473 6.91176M17.4995 12.1841C16.5378 15.2609 13.5967 17.5 10.1178 17.5C6.86118 17.5 4.07589 15.5379 2.94432 12.7632L2.41165 11.3235M2.41165 11.3235L1.5293 15.7353M2.41165 11.3235L6.38224 13.0882"></path></g></svg></button><button tabindex="0" type="button" class="pencraft pc-reset pencraft icon-container view-image"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="lucide lucide-maximize2 lucide-maximize-2"><polyline points="15 3 21 3 21 9"></polyline><polyline points="9 21 3 21 3 15"></polyline><line x1="21" x2="14" y1="3" y2="10"></line><line x1="3" x2="10" y1="21" y2="14"></line></svg></button></div></div></div></a></figure></div><p><strong>BROOKLYN, NY&#8212;</strong>  Following the breakout success of <em>Obsession</em>, members of the growing psychosexual community say they have finally found the representation they&#8217;ve been waiting for.</p><p>&#8220;For years, people told me I was just attracted to toxic &#8216;nice guys,&#8217;&#8221; said psychosexual activist Maren Bell. &#8220;But with <em>Obsession</em>? We finally have our own <em>Brokeback Mountain</em>.&#8221;</p><div class="subscription-widget-wrap-editor" data-attrs="{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.kevinkane.net/subscribe?&quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;Subscribe&quot;,&quot;language&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}" data-component-name="SubscribeWidgetToDOM"><div class="subscription-widget show-subscribe"><div class="preamble"><p class="cta-caption">Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.</p></div><form class="subscription-widget-subscribe"><input type="email" class="email-input" name="email" placeholder="Type your email&#8230;" tabindex="-1"><input type="submit" class="button primary" value="Subscribe"><div class="fake-input-wrapper"><div class="fake-input"></div><div class="fake-button"></div></div></form></div></div><p>While the psychosexual community generally defines itself as people attracted to psychologically manipulative, extremely cinematic relationships, members remain divided on the finer details. Some prefer the term &#8220;toxiromantic,&#8221; gay men often opt for &#8220;homocontextual,&#8221; while psychosexual lesbians call themselves &#8220;cinemasapphic.&#8221;</p><p>Almost everyone agrees their love needs to feel like an arthouse darling directed by someone recently divorced.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not attracted to men or women,&#8221; said Jacob Ramsey, taping up his callused, bloody fingers with shaking hands. &#8220;I&#8217;m exclusively attracted to a controlling violin teacher who is just maternal enough to lead to a deeply unsettling sex scene.&#8221;</p><p>The group&#8217;s Pride campaign, titled &#8220;Love Is Love, But Also Love Is Self-Mutilation, Death&#8230; And Maybe Rebirth? I Don&#8217;t Know, We Need To Rewatch Lars von Trier&#8217;s <em>Antichrist</em>,&#8221; aims to educate the public about psychosexual visibility while fighting harmful stereotypes that psychosexuals are merely &#8220;people who watched <em>Gone Girl</em> wrong.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;People think we&#8217;re broken, but we&#8217;re not,&#8221; said organizer Clara Wren, wiping away a tear. &#8220;We&#8217;re simply incapable of feeling desire unless that desire will break us. I try to explain who I am, and they think I&#8217;m just an A24 fan.&#8221;</p><p>The psychosexual community is currently finalizing its official flag design, with members split between a simple red flag or a blown-up still of Willem Dafoe&#8217;s penis. There is also fierce debate over which groups fall under the umbrella.</p><p>&#8220;The fraternal twincest community says it&#8217;s not incest. They argue it&#8217;s &#8216;narcissistic masturbation,&#8217; and sure. Okay. I&#8217;d say &#8216;you do you,&#8217; but you&#8217;re effectively already doing that,&#8221; said Wren. &#8220;But that&#8217;s not psychosexual unless someone is using intimacy as a weapon and the lighting suggests generational trauma.&#8221;</p><p>Community members say they often feel erased in mainstream dating culture, where healthy communication and mutual respect remain unfairly privileged.</p><p>&#8220;I went on a date with this guy, and he was kind, stable, and actively listened, and I felt nothing,&#8221; said psychosexual Maria Torres. &#8220;Then he mentioned I looked just like his wife, who went missing in the Mojave, and suddenly I was back.&#8221;</p><p>Torres grinned and flashed her new engagement ring.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re getting married in July,&#8221; she said. &#8220;In the Mojave!&#8221;</p><p>The psychosexual community will make its official debut during San Francisco&#8217;s Pride Parade, positioned between the <strong>&#8220;Allies Who Will Say They&#8217;re Bi So They Can Be In The Parade&#8221; c</strong>ontingent and the <strong>&#8220;Trying Polyamory Before The Divorce&#8221;</strong> float.</p>]]></content:encoded></item></channel></rss>