It’s fascinating to watch Buckingham Palace selectively lash out at Prince Harry. Currently, the palace is on a rather unhinged campaign against Harry because Harry spoke to ITV’s Tabloids on Trial documentary. Harry spoke about his lawsuits against the British tabloids, his unique position to seek justice on the British media’s decades of criminality, and he also spoke about the very real danger he and his family face in the UK, given RAVEC’s refusal to give them security when they’re in the UK. Harry said, in the documentary, that he “won’t bring my wife back to the UK because of the danger.” THAT is the part the palace has latched onto for several days, as they try to position King Charles as a sad grandfather who is being denied a relationship with Archie and Lili. As I said yesterday, this campaign from Charles is falling flat, but of course “sources” are telling the Daily Beast that what Harry is doing is “beyond contempt.” Some highlights:

Charles thinks Harry is trying to blackmail him: One friend of the king told The Daily Beast: “Harry has lost his security case in court, and is now trying the emotional blackmail route to get what he wants instead, cynically using the threat of Archie and Lilibet never meeting their grandfather again as a tactic to coerce the king into overruling RAVEC. The idea that the security forces are going to allow the Sussexes to be attacked by an acid-throwing or knife-wielding maniac on British soil is absurd, and Harry knows it. Using it as leverage, as a reason to withhold his kids from their grandfather, is beyond contempt. Charles is being treated for very serious cancer, so even if he could find the time, he cannot just fly to Los Angeles at the drop of a hat, like Harry can—and actually did earlier this year—in the other direction.”

The Sussex kids are being denied a relationship with Charles! The source, an old family friend of several generations of royals, added: “I wonder, when they are older, how those kids will feel about being denied a meaningful relationship with the King of England. To deprive them of that experience, with all its importance and heritage, seems very misguided. Of course he wants to see them, but if you force Charles to choose between his duty to the Crown and his personal feelings, he will choose the Crown every time—just as his mother did.”

Harry is threatening Charles! Another friend, a contemporary of the William and Harry generation of royals who used to be friendly with both brothers but is now loyal to William said: “When Harry was being kicked out of Frogmore Cottage, one of his lines was that Charles would never see the kids again. This is him going public with that threat.” When it was pointed out to the source that Harry didn’t mention his children in the TV interview, they replied, “It was clearly implied. This really isn’t about Meghan, who has no intention of ever coming back to England again.”

Sources close to Prince Harry: However, the source close to Harry told The Daily Beast: “Prince Harry inherited a security risk at birth, for life. He remains sixth in line to the throne, served two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan, and in recent years his family has been subjected to well-documented neo-Nazi and extremist threats. While his role within the institution has changed, his profile as a member of the royal family has not. Nor has the threat to him and his family. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex personally fund a private security team for their family, yet that security cannot replicate the necessary police protection whilst in the U.K. The Duke remains willing to cover the cost of security, as not to impose on the British taxpayer. As is widely known, others who have left public office and have inherent threat risk receive police protection at no cost to them. The goal for Prince Harry has been simple—to ensure the safety of himself and his family while in the UK so his children can know his home country.”

This is accurate: Another source, a Palace insider, told The Daily Beast: “The whole affair is totally fascinating. I think Harry needs to ask himself why Charles hasn’t overruled RAVEC, which, for all the insistence that he couldn’t, he could, being the king and all. It’s because the last thing the Palace want is Harry and Meghan turning up unannounced on a regular basis or setting up a rival royal court in the U.K. As things stand now, they have to give 28 days notice when they are coming and essentially need to pre-agree with the cops where they are going to be, or might be, at all times. That suits the Palace down to the ground.”

[From The Daily Beast]

“I think Harry needs to ask himself why Charles hasn’t overruled RAVEC, which, for all the insistence that he couldn’t, he could, being the king and all.” Harry has already asked himself that question and he’s formulated his statements accordingly. Harry knows his dogsh-t father doesn’t give a f–k about him, his wife or his kids. Harry knows that the palace’s current hissy fit is about Harry constantly exposing his father as a cruel, petty and vindictive man. Harry also knows that the dumbass argument of “Harry is keeping his kids away from Charles” is a convenient feint for the larger issues discussed in Tabloids on Trial, which is the complicity of the Windsors in the larger story of press misconduct and criminality.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, ITV.

As I read more excerpts from Robert Jobson’s latest royal biography, Catherine, Princess of Wales, I’m really shocked that royalists keep trying to reclaim Prince Harry’s story via “palace sources” and “insiders.” Once I read Harry’s memoir, it struck me as so bold that Harry would produce his own historical document, a narrative in his own voice about his life. It took the wind out of a lot of royalists’ sails, because they are so used to using unnamed sources and random “insiders” to lie about the Sussexes. Well, Jobson’s book seems to be an attempt at widespread revisionist history about all things Sussex… which is weird, because the book is supposed to be about Kate, right? Jobson couldn’t even get dates right, and he used Spare as a reference, only to claim that Harry’s memoir is a “source,” all while Jobson blatantly spreads falsehoods about the Sussexes. It’s a mess. Some additional highlights from this fakakta book:

King Charles is allowing Andrew back in the fold to teach Prince William a lesson: ‘Perhaps the King is subliminally trying to show William that forgiving one’s brother and giving him a second chance is a strength, not a weakness,’ said the source. ‘Prince William disagrees – and as for his own brother, as far as he is concerned there is no way back.’

Jobson claims Harry & Meghan were invited to W&K’s apartment before the wedding: When they went to have drinks at William and Catherine’s palatial apartment, [Meghan] was apparently ‘taken aback’ at the disparity between the brothers. ‘I am not saying Meghan was jealous, but she was surprised how lavishly Harry’s brother was living compared to where they were living,’ said a close source. ‘It was perhaps the beginning of all the tensions between the couples.’ Meghan understood, of course, that William was in the direct line of succession, but she felt that Harry, as a royal prince, deserved more than he had.

The money issue: Harry, however, later claimed that his father told him there was ‘not enough money to go around’ for Meghan, because he was already having to pay for William and Catherine. Harry was furious – feeling that he and Meghan were entitled to lavish handouts from ‘Pa’ in return for agreeing to serve the crown. In fact, according to close sources, Charles ended up giving Harry a ‘substantial sum’ and did not cut him off financially.

William & Kate’s jealousy: At first, public reaction to Meghan was overwhelmingly positive, with ‘the new kids on the block’ hogging most of the headlines – to the point that William and Catherine may have unconsciously raised their game. There were whispers of pettiness, even jealousy. William, who expected to be treated with deference due to his place in the succession, was put out when Meghan and Harry slotted in a morning engagement in Cardiff in January 2018 that clashed with one of his. Competitive by nature, even when it comes to media coverage, he chose that same afternoon to debut a new and dramatic buzz-cut during a visit to a London hospital. Some members of Charles’s household were amused that William had felt so affronted. After all, the prince rarely showed much deference to his father.

Jobson insists that Meghan made Kate cry: Then it emerged that, four days before the wedding, Meghan had apparently made Catherine cry during a fitting for Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid’s dress. This version was later flatly contradicted by the new Duchess of Sussex, who claimed Catherine had made her cry – and that the confrontation ‘really hurt my feelings’ and had been a ‘turning point’ in their relationship. Cynics pointed out that turning on the tears was not difficult for Meghan. She’d once boasted about her ability to do so as an actress, saying: ‘Oh, I can do that so well.’

William didn’t want Meghan to wear Diana’s jewelry: I have been told that, still concerned about the match, he’d sought assurances from the Queen that Harry’s bride would not be wearing any of Princess Diana’s jewellery, even though his own wife was allowed to wear it.

Kate is still being blamed for “recollections may vary”: The original draft of the statement had been much milder, but both William and Catherine had been keen to toughen it up. It was the then Duchess of Cambridge herself who came up with the powerful phrase ‘recollections may vary’. Her husband also challenged the allegations, telling reporters: ‘We are very much not a racist family.’

QEII’s death: The Sussexes were again in the UK later in 2022, when Charles called his younger son from Balmoral to tell him the Queen was dying. Harry could easily have joined William, Andrew and the Wessexes on an RAF flight from Northolt but after Charles told him Meghan couldn’t accompany him he chose instead to take a private jet. As a future queen, Catherine might have expected to join her husband at Balmoral, but she elected to stay with their children. Her decision may have been influenced by Harry’s petulance.

[From The Daily Mail]

One of the weirder lies is that William and Kate welcomed Harry and Meghan into their home before the wedding. Harry was pretty specific about that in Spare – Will and Kate came to dinner at Nottingham Cottage several times, but the first time Meghan was invited into the KP apartment was after the wedding. Jobson isn’t alone in his near constant emphasis that Meghan was a golddigger, or that she had her eyes on the jewels – I want people to understand that Spare was Harry documenting the myriad ways in which his family abused him, including financial abuse. Meghan was probably shocked by the fact that Harry didn’t even understand how badly he was being financially abused and that Harry has no concept of money. That’s a key point – Meghan wasn’t a golddigger, but she taught Harry about money and about what his family had been doing to him. That’s one of many reasons why the Windsors are still mad at her. Anyway, yeah… William and Kate f–king suck.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgird, Cover Images.

Pax Jolie is 20 years old. I don’t know a ton about his life these days, but from what I can tell, he’s super-close to Angelina Jolie, he’s worked behind-the-scenes on several of her films (including Maria and Without Blood), he often walks around like he’s his mother’s main bodyguard and he despises Brad Pitt. When Angelina is in New York, Pax is almost always with her. When Angelina is in LA, Pax is almost always with her. Well, in recent months, Pax has been seen zipping around LA on an electric bicycle. On Monday, he crashed into a car which was stopped at a red light.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s son, Pax Jolie-Pitt, is one lucky guy after police say he smashed his electric bicycle into a car on a busy L.A. street … TMZ has learned. The 20-year-old was riding Monday on Los Feliz Blvd. around 5 PM — so, rush hour on a heavily trafficked street — and as he approached a red light, he rammed into the back of a car stopped at the intersection … according to law enforcement sources.

We’re told the driver of the car got out to check on Pax, who was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. Police and paramedics arrived on the scene, and witnesses tell us Pax was experiencing hip pain, and had apparently suffered a head injury … so, he was rushed to an L.A. hospital for treatment.

We’re told medics feared he suffered a minor brain bleed in the wreck, but the latest word is that Pax is stable, and might be able to go home sometime tonight.

Pax — the 4th of Angelina and Brad’s 6 kids — has been seen recently cruising around L.A. on a BMX-style e-bike, and almost always without a helmet.

California helmet laws differ depending on the class of bicycle … so, it’s unclear if he needs one with that particular ride. What is clear, is a helmet would’ve come in handy during today’s accident.

[From TMZ]

Yeah, Angelina Jolie loves motorcycles, planes and anything that can go fast, so Pax comes by it naturally. Still, he needs to wear a g-ddamn helmet, especially if he’s going on high-traffic roads during rush hour. He’s really lucky that this wasn’t a lot worse. I’m glad that he’s fine – or at least that’s how it sounds – but I hope this is a wakeup call. Helmet! Don’t ride your bike in traffic either.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.

For days now, I’ve been rolling my eyes at the excerpts from Robert Jobson’s latest royal tome, Catherine, The Princess Of Wales: The Biography. Jobson deals in revisionist history and outright fiction, and he openly does Queen Camilla’s dirty work. Most of the “tea” has been lukewarm, if not outright stale. But I chanced upon this section and I found it fascinating. Keep in mind, the bulk of the book – allegedly a biography of Kate – seems to be the Sussexes and Prince William. But Jobson has some interesting information about the Mother’s Day frankenphoto fiasco back in March, and how Prince William thought nothing of tossing his cancer-stricken wife under the bus.

Meanwhile, Catherine unexpectedly became the centre of a media storm. Her absence from the public stage had already fuelled frenzied internet conspiracy theories by the time she released a family photo to mark Mother’s Day, which she’d digitally edited.

The doctored photo sparked a furore, leaving the fragile princess saddened and deeply embarrassed. Naively, she’d edited the best shot taken by William at least three times to make the family look better – yet people had immediately noticed something was wrong with Princess Charlotte’s sleeve.

Even the White House press secretary mocked the royal couple, giving the U.S. press corps assurances that no images by them would ever be doctored. Despite the clamour, the Palace refused to release the original photo, which only sparked further fevered speculation. Close sources say that it was Prince William who refused to budge.

His PR team suggested he and Catherine issue a joint statement to help deflect the blame from her. The initial prepared statement used the words ‘we’ and ‘our’, but the prince decided not to release it. After all, it was his wife who’d manipulated the snap and nothing to do with him, and if the Press found out that he was covering for the princess, the speculation would only grow. When the statement was finally issued, it came from Catherine alone.

Then came her deeply shocking video announcement that she had cancer and had started preventative chemotherapy. Two pillars of the monarchy were now facing serious medical challenges that would impede their royal duties, in Catherine’s case for months. The Sussex-shaped void in the Royal Family has never loomed so large, yet there is no question of them stepping in to help. William remains adamant about that.

As for King Charles, he’s let it be known that he’ll never shut the door on his second child, though there seems little chance of a meaningful reconciliation for now.

…The ‘Harry problem’, as it’s known among Palace staff, continues to plague the King. ‘What worries His Majesty, and his top team,’ says a Palace official, ‘is what is going to happen when all the money runs out.’

[From The Daily Mail]

First of all, the “what is going to happen when all the money runs out” issue is hilarious because the Sussexes are living in a beautiful Montecito mansion and they have millions in the bank. They have created generational wealth in four years. The Windsors are clinging to their cracked-out fantasy/dream/hope that at some point, the money will run out and Harry will come crawling back to them. They’ve been banking on that for years. It’s never going to happen.

As for the stuff about Kate and the statement… William is a complete piece of sh-t. That whole Mother’s Day frankenphoto fiasco was a sh-tshow from start to finish. I don’t even believe – I never believed – that Kate was the one who edited the photo, nor did I believe that William took the photo. He wouldn’t even fall on his sword in a minor way to protect his wife with cancer in a PR snafu. Please don’t let the clownshow of the first six months of 2024 be forgotten.

Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace.

Embed from Getty Images
Alright, who remembers last summer’s B-plot involving Elon Musk wanting to fight Mark Zuckerberg? To recap, last June, Elon Musk was bro’ing out with the Blue Check Bros while having a hissy fit over Meta’s then-new social media platform, Threads. At some point during that tantrum, Musk challenged Zuck to a cage match. Zuck responded by telling Space Karen to “Send me location.” At some point, it was planned that this cage match would be live-streamed from Las Vegas for charity. No one could agree on which platform to stream it from, and eventually, the Muskrat dropped out due to “shoulder surgery.” After that, the story had a few more gasps of air when Elon tried to rent out the motherf-cking Colosseum and then showed up at Zuck’s house for attention. It was a stupid time.

Last week, Elno apparently poked his head up from a potential ketamine haze and remembered his feud from 12 months ago. I have no idea if he thought that it was still ongoing, got excited after seeing the Gladiator II trailer, or if he’s just trying to distract from his daughter completely eviscerating him as she clapped back against his utter hypocrisy and complete cruelty, but he told a reporter during a visit to the US Capital that he is still totally down to get his ass kicked by Marky Z.

Mark Zuckerberg is showing little interest in Elon Musk’s renewed interest in a cage match. In a Wednesday, July 24, post on Threads, the Meta founder and CEO responded to Musk’s continued request to fight.

“Are we really doing this again?” Zuckerberg, 40, wrote.

The post was in response to Musk, 53, telling a reporter, “I’ll fight Zuckerberg any place, any time, any rules.”

The tech giants have previously discussed a potential match in the octagon in exchanges on social media and have yet to lock in an actual match. In June 2023, Musk and Zuckerberg appeared to agree to a “cage match” in Las Vegas. After a user posted about Zuckerberg’s Threads possibly competing with X (formerly Twitter) and another told Musk he needed to watch out for Zuckerberg’s ju jitsu skills, Musk responded, “I’m up for a cage match if he is lol.” Hours later, Zuckerberg responded by posting Musk’s reply to his Instagram Stories, adding “Send me location.” Musk proposed the Vegas Octagon.

A Meta spokesperson told PEOPLE at the time that “the story speaks for itself,” as far as how likely a battle between the billionaires was. However, the impending fight might have to wait. In August 2023, Zuckerberg told his followers on Threads that the Tesla CEO wouldn’t commit to a date for their face-off.

“I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious and it’s time to move on. I offered a real date. Dana White offered to make this a legit competition for charity,” Zuckerberg wrote at the time.

“Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead,” the Meta founder said.

He added that if Musk would be willing, he could contact Zuckerberg.

“If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me,” the Facebook founder continued. “Otherwise, time to move on. I’m going to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously.”

[From People]

Hahahaha this is so dumb yet I sometimes long for these times when rich people are being ridiculous and ridicule-worthy towards each other. That said, Zuck’s kids are similar in age to mine, and it seems like he’s a more hands-on parent than Elon ever was/is, so perhaps he really is just rolling his eyes at the complete immaturity of it all. They should just call a truce, given that they’re on the same side for this year’s presidential election and all. (To be clear, that side is whatever party will let them greedily take home more money and avoid paying back into the system that helped make them gazillionaires.) If I had to pick a side, I suppose for, as much as I can’t stand Zucky-Zuck, I’m still all for watching him punch the daylights out of Apartheid Clyde.

Another @elonmusk quote from his visit to the hill today—

Musk said he’d fight Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg “any place, any time, any rules” pic.twitter.com/XYSBdmpkzX

— Kelly Phares (@kellyfphares) July 24, 2024

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mark Zuckerberg (@zuck)

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photos credit: IMAGO/CNP / MediaPunch / Avalon, Olivier Huitel / Avalon, Getty

Justin Timberlake was arrested for driving while intoxicated in June. He refused the breathalyzer, but his drunk ass was driving on the wrong side of the road and he missed a stop sign. He was also visibly intoxicated, and the arresting officer could smell the liquor on him. After Justin spent one night in jail, he sobered up, hired a local lawyer and at least one clownish crisis manager. Whoever is running crisis management for Justin these days is doing a terrible job – they were trying to doxx the arresting officer, but everyone took the cop’s side. The crisis management team has also been running around, bribing people to publicly claim that Justin only had one drink and that he was definitely not drunk, not at all. Well, last Friday, Justin’s lawyer had several motions before the court:

Justin Timberlake will be arraigned next Friday on a misdemeanor charge of driving drunk in June in this waterfront village about 100 miles from New York City, and the pop singer will appear for the hearing virtually, by a remote link while he is on tour in Europe, a judge ruled on Friday. Sag Harbor Village Justice Carl Irace also agreed to review a motion by Timberlake’s attorney, Edward D. Burke Jr., to dismiss the case outright based on what Burke called a procedurally “defective” criminal complaint filed by the Sag Harbor Village Police officer who arrested Timberlake.

Burke said that the local police department failed to have a supervising officer sign off on the criminal complaint that detailed the “young” and “part-time” officer’s interactions with Timberlake. Irace said the arraignment will still go forward based on a revised criminal complaint filed earlier in July by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office. A prosecutor, Ashley Cangro, said the paperwork issue raised by Burke has no bearing ”on the facts of the case.”

Timberlake has a concert scheduled for tonight in Krakow, Poland. Irace briefly paused the half-hour hearing so that Burke could find a workable court date next week for his client. “Find out what day — whoever you have to talk to — what day we can do a video arraignment with your client.”

Outside the red-brick municipal building housing the court, Burke told reporters, “The most important thing we have to say today is obviously that Justin should not have been arrested for driving while intoxicated. The police made a number of very significant errors in this case, and you heard the District Attorney try to fix one of those errors just this morning upstairs in court.”

Burke emphasized that his client respects law enforcement and the judiciary, but said that police officers, being human, sometimes “make mistakes.” He added that Timberlake “cooperated with the police officers from the second he was ordered out of his car to the second he was discharged on June 18th” by the same judge. “But the facts remain,” Burke added, “he was not intoxicated. I’ll say it again: Justin Timberlake was not intoxicated and we’re confident that charge — that criminal charge — will be dismissed.”

[From Deadline]

With no Breathalyzer analysis and – I’m assuming – no blood-alcohol test administered when he was arrested, is this a he-said/he-said situation? Not to get too CSI about it, but I would imagine the prosecution could get their hands on traffic video and security footage of Justin’s drunk ass driving down the wrong side of the road. They could even get eyewitness testimony about his behavior in the bar – I doubt Justin’s team managed to pay off everyone in the bar, you know? All of this because Justin doesn’t want to admit that he’s got substance abuse issues. Sigh. Meanwhile, TMZ is still getting briefings from Justin’s lawyer, and this is their latest story:

Justin Timberlake might have an ace in the hole to get his DWI case dismissed … and it’s a woman who took the keys to his car after his arrest … TMZ has learned. As we reported, Justin was busted for drunk driving last month, after partying with friends at a Sag Harbor hotel. Cops say they saw him blow a stop sign and swerve as he was following some friends.

After he was stopped, cops say he failed multiple sobriety field tests and also smelled of alcohol. He refused to blow into a Breathalyzer, and claimed he only drank one martini. Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ … the car Justin was following came back to where the singer was pulled over. There was a woman and her husband in that car, and the woman got out and went up to one of the cops and began questioning him, asking, “Are you going to arrest Justin Timberlake?”

She then offered to drive Justin to their house, where he was going to spend the night … in other words, just let him go and she and her husband would get him home safely. That strategy did not work, and Justin was arrested.

Now here’s the twist. Our sources say the woman asked cops if she could take Justin’s rental car to her house, given that Justin was going to jail. The cops obliged, she got in Justin’s car and left. We’re told the woman had arrived at The American Hotel 2 hours before Justin and was drinking … and it was apparent she had been drinking. Yet the 2 cops who were on the scene let her take the wheel and drive away.

We’re told Justin’s lawyer, Edward Burke, Jr. — who is trying to get the case dismissed — will argue the 2 young cops were so off in their judgment, they let a person who had clearly been drinking drive away, right in front of their eyes. If they were unable to properly evaluate her, how could they properly evaluate him?

[From TMZ]

How many extra things happened around the DWI arrest of one washed-up pop star? While I’m no big-city lawyer, this story makes no sense as a “reason” why Timberlake’s case would be or could be dismissed. The argument of “that woman was drunker than Justin, therefore you must acquit” is bonkers. Justin is also clearly throwing a friend under the bus too?? Nothing quite like a has-been trying to save his own skin and avoid going to rehab.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

Deadpool & Wolverine made $208 million in its opening weekend, and that’s just the domestic box office. It opened with $233.3 million internationally. [Seriously OMG]
A Dexter prequel is happening! Michael C. Hall is involved too. [Pajiba]
I’m calling it: Katy Perry is over. [OMG Blog]
Ariana Grande & Cynthia Erivo were forced to go to the Paris Olympics as part of the advanced promotion for Wicked. [Socialite Life]
Zendaya & other celebrities went to Paris for the Olympics! [LaineyGossip]
Simu Liu’s boots are snazzy! [Go Fug Yourself]
Cindy Crawford & Kaia Gerber were in Paris too! [Just Jared]
Greta Lee’s high-fashion Canadian tuxedo. [RCFA]
Wedding photos from two Summer House stars. [Starcasm]
There are unsurprisingly so many Leos in Hollywood. [Hollywood Life]
What is the best “summer horror movie”? [Buzzfeed]

One week ago, Vice President Kamala Harris was shoring up the delegates and party support to ensure that she will be the official Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. I’ve never seen someone hit the ground running like VP Harris – the speed with which she assumed the role of nominee was amazing and she’s already been campaigning her ass off. Meanwhile, there was of course an immediate concern for VP Harris and her campaign: who would be her running mate? They’ve been doing quick-yet-thorough vetting on at least six boring white men, because she’s absolutely going to choose a white guy running mate. Everyone’s made their peace with that. So who is the best contender? Kentucky’s Gov. Andy Beshear? North Carolina’s Gov. Roy Cooper? Arizona’s Senator Mark Kelly? Illinois’s Gov. Pritzker? Pennsylvania’s Gov. Shapiro? That was Harris’s shortlist five days ago or so.

Well, some of those guys have been campaigning as well, making this a veepstakes via television appearance. Something really funny has happened too – while Gov. Beshear has gotten really high marks in his TV appearances, a dark horse has emerged, someone who wasn’t even on some of the shortlists: Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz. Walz’s TV appearances are already legendary, and his folksy, regular-dad style of attacking the Trump-Vance campaign has gotten high marks. His insistence that Donald Trump and JD Vance are simply “really weird” has even been adopted by the Harris campaign. Bloomberg even reports that Gov. Walz is on the latest shortlist:

Vice President Kamala Harris is zeroing in on a group of potential running mates, as she faces a two-week dash to make the biggest decision of her nascent presidential bid. Harris is considering a wide range of vice presidential candidates from the Democratic Party’s bench, though people familiar with the process say a short list has emerged including three elected officials with nationwide appeal: Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Kevin Munoz, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, said she “directed her team to begin the process of vetting potential running mates” but declined to elaborate on the search. Harris is expected to make a selection by Aug. 7, in order to align with the party’s plan to virtually nominate a ticket by that date.

Picking a vice presidential candidate will cement the Democratic standard-bearers to take on Republican nominee Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance in the November election. Harris’ sidekick can serve as a force multiplier who can campaign and raise money on her behalf, while ideally complimenting her strengths and covering any vulnerabilities.

Most on Harris’ list are White, male politicians with centrist leanings who could help Harris appeal to swing-state voters, as well as business leaders and donors. They have a track record of attacking Trump and his firebrand style of politics. Walz has gained momentum with progressives, enough to vault himself into consideration, according to people familiar with the matter.

Allies of Harris say chemistry between the vice president and whoever she picks is just as important as their political attributes. Harris knows firsthand the pressures of being No. 2 on the Democratic ticket and is weighing her experience as she makes a selection, according to her supporters.

[From Bloomberg]

Personal chemistry should not be underrated, which is why I think Gov. Walz has emerged as a favorite too – he seems really normal, he seems like the kind of folksy guy who tells dad jokes and appeals to a lot of Rust Belt voters. I could absolutely see Walz and VP Harris getting along really well on a personal level (he’s a bit like Doug, tbh). NBC News said as much too – they did a really nice profile on Walz, with many Dem sources saying that Walz is seen as someone who can “shore up the Blue Wall” in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. His biography makes him an attractive candidate too – a veteran, a former public school teacher, very pro-labor, very popular with the progressive wing of the party and popular because of his family-friendly policies. What’s more is that… Walz really wants it. He’s been happy to make the TV show rounds and make the case for Kamala Harris and for Democrats nationwide. Anyway, I’m calling it: I think Tim Walz is going to aw-shucks his way into the vice presidency and Kamala Harris’s heart.

I’m telling you: these guys are weird. pic.twitter.com/fvNRNf7T7T

— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) July 24, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

Robert Jobson has a new royal biography out this week called Catherine, The Princess Of Wales. As I’ve said before, Jobson is an old-guard Charles & Camilla royalist. Jobson’s sources are mainly from the Charles and Camilla side of things, so his biography of Kate is more about the king and queen consort, and it’s more about how the institution of the monarchy has approached Kate over the years. Which would be an interesting thing to study and analyze without agenda, but Jobson’s agenda is pretty obvious on every page. The Daily Mail published some extensive excerpts from the book and here are some highlights about Kate’s lack of work ethic, her lack of interest in being a fashion plate, and as always, her ability to be the keenest lynchpin ever.

Will & Kate’s 2010 engagement interview: It was the first time most people had heard Catherine speak publicly and some were surprised to note that her accent was perhaps overly posh, even compared with William’s. Afterwards even members of her own family gently ribbed her about how upper-class it sounded. (Over time, however, her accent has become less clipped.)

Kate’s ground rules: Diana was always going to be a tough act to follow but, from the outset, Catherine has never tried to do so. Before joining ‘the Firm’, she wisely established some fundamental rules. She wouldn’t be pigeon-holed into carrying out particular duties and insisted on eventually having her full quota of maternity leave, away from the glare of the media and public. Her priority, she emphasised, would be to maintain a balance between her royal obligations and what she held most dear: a loving marriage and a happy family life. This didn’t mean that she wouldn’t carry out royal duties; far from it. But she wanted to offer her patronage only to charities close to her interests and delve into their purpose with in-depth study.

Kate was too lazy to even present her ground rules to QEII: These ‘terms’ were, in fact, presented by William to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles in early 2015, when Catherine was pregnant with Charlotte. On her behalf, he explained that she wanted more space to grow into her role and needed more time to adapt to the peculiarities of royal life.

QEII monitored the Wales marriage: The Queen knew, too, that if this marriage failed, there’d be far more at stake than a broken heart. Since the early days of William’s romance with Kate, Queen Elizabeth had monitored it from a discreet distance. She didn’t interfere, but she was privately delighted by his choice. For understandable reasons, Her Majesty particularly liked the lack of drama that came with Catherine.

Prince Philip’s advice: He gave Catherine some sage advice: never to believe that the attention she’d receive as a member of the Royal Family was for her personally. It was for what she was supporting, he said. He also warned her against looking at the camera, as celebrities do. His advice chimed with her. She has also remained true to her resolution to stick to charities close to her heart — particularly those that deal with the early years of childhood — which means she has fewer royal patronages than Diana did, but can dig deeper.

Kate never complains, lmao: If Catherine has ever struggled to cope with the strains of royal life, she has never complained publicly — unlike Princess Diana or Meghan. True to her upbringing, she just gets on with it. Some have criticised her for being bland. The late novelist Dame Hilary Mantel went further, scathingly describing her as a ‘jointed doll on which certain rags are hung’. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although Catherine has learned to play the dressing-up game, wearing sumptuous designer gowns for formal occasions, she’s not interested in being a fashion plate.

The Wales marriage is fine, nothing to see here! With William, Catherine also enjoys playing competitive games of tennis or lolling on the sofa and watching box sets — including Homeland and Game Of Thrones — when ‘the kiddies are in bed’. They like their low-key lifestyle at Adelaide Cottage in Windsor, and remain very much in love.

The Keen Lynchpin! She may not have the starry allure of Princess Diana, but she’s brought stability, empathy, glamour and an enquiring mind to the royal institution. Commander Patrick Jephson, the former private secretary to Princess Diana, believes the monarchy needs ‘reassuringly conventional royal performers’ such as Catherine. She holds this royal dynasty’s future in her hands, he says, adding: ‘It helps that Catherine, like Diana, has that indefinable but essential royal quality: presence.’ In a way, she is much like the late Queen — quietly wielding influence without ever succumbing to the siren lure of celebrity. The King, say those close to him, has unwavering faith in Catherine, and sees her as a lynchpin for the modern monarchy.

[From The Daily Mail]

Jobson’s book is so full of propaganda, I’m more convinced than ever that some serious sh-t has gone down in the past year. Basically, since the coronation, I’m convinced that there’s been chaos behind the scenes in the Wales marriage and drama between the two central royal couples, Charles and Camilla versus William and Kate. Anyway, some quick factchecks! Kate is absolutely a complainer. She absolutely wants to be a fashion plate but fails at it. She’s never been interested in working at all and that lack of work ethic didn’t just suddenly become an issue during her second pregnancy. And the Windsors actually showed this year that Kate is not the lynchpin. People wanted to know if she was okay, they were concerned that she disappeared for six months, but the Windsors actually proved that everything was perfectly fine without Kate.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

I’ve seen a lot of people compare JD Vance’s entrance onto the Republican presidential ticket to John McCain choosing Sarah Palin. Let me tell you something, kids – Vance is worse. Palin was an idiot and a catastrophe, of course, but Palin was enormously popular with the proto-MAGA voters. She gave a huge fundraising boost to the McCain campaign and she was a hit on the campaign trail. Vance… isn’t anything like that. He’s not popular with the base, he’s not a hit without donors beyond Peter Thiel, he’s awkward and weird on the campaign trail, his years of sh-ttalking is coming back to haunt him and his personal narrative is being attacked by both Democrats and Republicans.

As we discussed soon after Vance was added to the ticket, the white supremacists – who are Trump’s base – were really upset that Vance is married to an Indian-American woman and that they have three half-Indian children. When Vance was sent out last Friday to do damage control on all of his creepy, weird statements about “childless cat ladies,” Megyn Kelly also asked him about the white supremacist “backlash” to his Indian-American wife Usha Vance. This was his response:

“Obviously she’s not a white person…but I love Usha, she’s such a good mom.”

Honestly this is such a weird way to respond to white supremacist attacks on your Indian American wife. Pathetic. pic.twitter.com/aC5BIOzm1D

— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) July 27, 2024

This is what he said: “Look, I love my wife so much. I love her because she’s who she is. Obviously, she’s not a white person, and we’ve been accused, attacked by some white supremacists over that. But I just, I love Usha. She’s such a good mom.” There are like twenty different angles to unpack here. First of all, I find it interesting that he even addressed it at all, given that Donald Trump bends over backwards to let white supremacists know that they’re all simpatico. Secondly, Usha Vance needs to file for divorce. White supremacists are attacking her and her children and her husband goes on Megyn Kelly’s podcast and he says “she’s not a white person BUT I love her.” The “good mom” thing is fascinating too, because up until the RNC, Usha Vance had a high-powered legal career… the kind of career JD Vance believes women should not have.

Photos courtesy of Vance’s IG, Avalon Red, Cover Images.