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The Duchess of Sussex made a surprise visit to Uvalde, Texas on Thursday. She arrived about 48 hours after 19 children and two teachers were murdered inside Robb Elementary. Incidentally, Uvalde law enforcement allowed the mass murderer to go inside the school. They didn’t follow him and they waited for nearly one hour as he murdered children. The cops waited outside and handcuffed and detained parents who begged them to go in. The massacre of children has once again left a community crippled in anguish and a country on its knees as we try to process yet another slaughter of innocents.

Meghan’s spokesperson confirmed to media outlets that Meghan went to Uvalde in a private and personal capacity as a mother. She laid flowers at the memorial site (white flowers with a purple ribbon) and she spoke to some of the other people at the memorial. She also dropped off food at the Herby Ham Activity Center, which is acting as a blood drive center. She reportedly “quietly dropped by the community center’s kitchen to drop off two ‘large’ crates filled with sandwiches, beverages, and desserts for blood donors.” Buzzfeed spoke to one of the volunteers who said she didn’t even recognize Meghan, but carried on a conversation with her for a while. One of the volunteers did recognize Meg and asked for a photo, and Meghan obliged. The women she spoke to said that they honestly thought Meghan was one of their neighbors.

Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, left white flowers for the 21 victims killed in the Texas school mass shooting.https://t.co/DtDOROjfyr

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) May 26, 2022

Meghan Markle Visited Uvalde To Donate Food At A Blood Drive And Pay Tribute To The School Shooting Victims https://t.co/6A2hN6C0le

— Amber Jamieson (@ambiej) May 26, 2022

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Photos courtesy of Getty.

Texas’s Governor Greg Abbott has made a bold decision. He will not spent today with his handlers and donors at the big NRA convention in Houston. He will go to Uvalde to use the parents of murdered children as props in his Republican propaganda. But don’t worry, Abbott is sending a video to the NRA convention, and Donald Trump still plans on making a speech. I would imagine that a good chunk of Abbott’s visit to Uvalde will be another press conference in which the entire narrative changes about the massacre. Local and state law enforcement have not been able to keep their stories straight, and in every version, the Uvalde police force comes across as grotesquely inept, cowardly and guilty of criminal manslaughter. From this Wall Street Journal article:

Cops lied about how the murderer entered the building and who he encountered: The gunman entered the building unobstructed after lingering outside for 12 minutes firing shots. Victor Escalon, a regional director for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said he couldn’t say why no one stopped Ramos from entering the school during that time Tuesday. Most of the shots Ramos fired came during the first several minutes after he entered the school. Department of Public Safety officials previously said an armed school officer confronted Ramos as he arrived at the school. Mr. Escalon said Thursday that information was incorrect and no one encountered Ramos as he arrived at the school. “There was not an officer readily available and armed,” Mr. Escalon said.

The cops stood around, doing nothing for an hour: “The police were doing nothing,” said Angeli Rose Gomez, who after learning about the shooting drove 40 miles to Robb Elementary, where her children are in second and third grade. “They were just standing outside the fence. They weren’t going in there or running anywhere.”

The cops were handcuffing, jumping & tasering parents who begged them to go inside: Ms. Gomez, a farm supervisor, was also waiting outside for her children. She said she was one of numerous parents who began encouraging—first politely, and then with more urgency—police and other law enforcement to enter the school sooner. After a few minutes, she said, U.S. Marshals put her in handcuffs, telling her she was being arrested for intervening in an active investigation. Ms. Gomez said she convinced local Uvalde police officers whom she knew to persuade the marshals to set her free. Ms. Gomez described the scene as frantic. She said she saw a father tackled and thrown to the ground by police and a third pepper-sprayed. Once freed from her cuffs, Ms. Gomez made her distance from the crowd, jumped the school fence, and ran inside to grab her two children. She sprinted out of the school with them.

Again, the cops tasered parents: After the confrontation at the school ended with Ramos dead, school buses began to arrive to transport students from the school, according to Ms. Gomez. She said she saw police use a Taser on a local father who approached the bus to collect his child. “They didn’t do that to the shooter, but they did that to us. That’s how it felt,” Ms. Gomez said.

The coverup: Bob Estrada lives directly across the street from the school, which his grandson attends. The 77-year-old said he and his wife walked outside when they heard gunshots and were confused why the police who arrived didn’t immediately enter. “They are trying to cover something up,” he said of the information released Thursday. “I think the cops were waiting for backup because they didn’t want to go into the school.”

[From WSJ]

“I think the cops were waiting for backup because they didn’t want to go into the school.” Yes. The repulsive cowardice of the police was underlined by DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez, who was interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on CNN. Olivarez lied and said the cops on the scene entered the school swiftly (they did not) but even if the police allowed the shooter to massacre children and teachers for a full hour, the cops did so because “they could’ve been shot, they could’ve been killed, and that gunman would have had an opportunity to kill other people inside that school.”

The cops’ negligence and incompetence within the school also got one child shot:

A fourth grader who survived the shooting said officers assaulting the barricaded room told kids to call for help before they had incapacitated the gunman, which led to him shooting a kid who called for help https://t.co/rJP1B2hPC7 pic.twitter.com/6bHgb2risi

— Evan Hill (@evanhill) May 26, 2022

Here is a video of the parents pleading with cops to enter the school and stop the murderer.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

Andrew Morton released a royal book, Elizabeth & Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters, last year. He tried desperately to make his story about how Prince Harry is the “Margaret” of this generation and no one really bought it. So he’s trying something new – he’s got another book out called The Queen. The Daily Mail has been dutifully excerpting from it, and most of it is just stale tea about how the Queen was annoyed with Diana and Fergie sometimes, etc. Morton also tried to breathe new life in all of the old stories about how Prince Charles spent years gaslighting Diana and telling everyone that Diana was “mad” (meaning crazy). Morton doesn’t even mention that the royals are running the exact same play on Prince Harry, telling everyone that Harry is too emotional, too fragile, too sensitive. It’s especially galling coming from certain royals who want to be seen as mental health advocates.

Anyway, I’m fine with ignoring most of Morton’s BS because it’s abundantly clear that he has little in the way of relevant or fresh gossip. But I did want to talk about his recent interview, where he spoke about how the future of the monarchy is William and not Charles.

The Prince of Wales’s time on the throne will be “an interregnum”, royal biographer Andrew Morton has claimed. And, he added, the Queen is aware of this and sees the second-in-line to the throne as the future of the Firm.

Asked what the monarch is putting in place for the future and how she is protecting her legacy ahead of the end of her reign, Mr Morton told OK! magazine: “She’s spent a lot of time with Prince William and with Catherine and I think she sees them very much as the future. She’s no fool – she knows Prince Charles is going to be an interregnum, like Edward VII, so the family that will carry the burden for the monarchy going forwards is the House of Cambridge.”

The Duke of Cambridge, Princess Diana’s biographer added, has been involved in conversations regarding the future of the monarchy and his role. He said: “Of course, he has – he’s a central player. Obviously, Prince Charles is the next in line, but even he would acknowledge that everyone sees William as the future of the Crown and the popular future – despite being booed at Wembley!”

[From The Daily Express]

So, um, agree or disagree? I disagree, strongly. I think the Queen and Charles are both quite worried about William being the “future” of the institution. They’ve seen him close-up and they know how ill-suited he is for anything. It’s clear that the Queen is actually pretty concerned about both of her heirs, but she must feel like Charles is much steadier than William. However long or short Charles’s reign may be, seeing William as Prince of Wales will – I believe – end up being pretty f–king stark.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and Instar.

When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex visited Queen Elizabeth last month at Windsor Castle, she personally invited them to come to the events around her Platinum Jubbly. I believe – and there’s enough evidence to substantiate this – that the Queen and Prince Charles made significant moves to guarantee Harry and Meghan visit with their children. Moves like… ensuring the security situation is what Harry wants, and dialing down a lot of the anti-Sussex leaks from Buckingham Palace and Clarence House. So why are Charles and Liz going out of their way? Because they need to be seen having some kind of public reconciliation with Harry and Meghan. Chaz and Liz also know that it looks worse and worse that the two most charismatic “stars” of the Firm were pushed and exiled. What I’m saying is that Charles and Liz need to be seen with the Sussexes more than Harry and Meghan need to be seen with the royals. But, of course, it’s always Opposite Day in Salt Island.

Prince Harry knows he needs a sprinkle of the Royal Family’s ‘magic fairy dust’ if he wants to continue making money in California, a royal expert has claimed. Author and historian Tessa Dunlop told True Royal TV’s the Royal Beat that the Duke of Sussex, 37, is in a difficult position because he is trading on his royal ties but does not want to expose too much in case he is completely cut off.

Dunlop, along with royal biographer and journalist Duncan Larcombe and royal reporter Alan Jones, was discussing Harry’s upcoming memoirs, which are due to shed light on his time as part of the Firm. Dunlop says Harry might feel anxious about overstepping the mark.

‘It can feel very lonely if the institution shuts you out,’ she said. ‘And I think Harry, more than anyone, realises he’s walking a tightrope. Yes, he needs to make money, and yes, the Royal Family has made him feel excluded and he feels unsupported. But he also realises, on a professional level, he needs some of their magic fairy dust. And, on an emotional level, they’re family. So how much “tell-all” does he really want to do? I think that’s going to be the great conundrum for him and his wife.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Before the visit to Windsor Castle last month, I genuinely believed that Harry was fully prepared to not go to the Jubbly. The security issue was a mess and the only person he gives a sh-t about in the family is the Queen. Again, look at who was doing the inviting, who was clearing up all of the security issues and palace leaking. That tells you who needs whom. Harry doesn’t need the Windsor “magic fairy dust” – he has his own. It seems more like the Windsors want some Sussex magic fairy dust. (Is Windsor magic fairy dust just crushed and powdered buttons? We’ll never know.)

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and Instar.

Laverne Cox got her own Barbie doll! That’s amazing. [Seriously OMG]
Holy crap, Viola Davis looks amazing in this suit. [GFY]
The Onion’s editors have had enough. [Buzzfeed]
The beef I’ve wanted for years: Kanye West v. the FEC. [Dlisted]
Homeschooling isn’t the solution to children being massacred. [Jezebel]
Please look at Bryce Dallas Howard’s shoulder pads & sleeves! [Tom & Lorenzo]
Did you guys watch the This Is Us series finale? [Pajiba]
This is what the kids consider a “passionate kiss.” [JustJared]
Leonardo DiCaprio is in St. Tropez with his bros. Where is Camila Morrone, who is just weeks shy of turning 25 years old? [LaineyGossip]
A city without phone booths… we will regret this one day. [Towleroad]
A review of Top Gun: Maverick. [Gawker]

As we have heard ad nauseam over the past three weeks, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are not “allowed” on the fakakta balcony for Trooping the Colour, which will happen on June 2nd (next Thursday). Nevermind the fact that timing of the announcements made it clear that Harry and Meghan were totally fine with skipping the crusty porch, and nevermind the fact that Harry reportedly told the Queen that he and Meghan didn’t even want to be on the balcony in the first place. Still, the royals want to deploy the Sussexes somehow, in some way. Which is why Harry and Meghan are invited to the June 3rd service at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Apparently, the Sussexes are now confirmed for that.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will join the biggest Royal family reunion since their wedding next week as the Queen’s relatives gather to celebrate her reign at St Paul’s Cathedral. All of the monarch’s cousins, children and grandchildren are expected to attend the Platinum Jubilee service of thanksgiving for what will be the biggest royal outing of the bank holiday weekend, although the youngest family members will not take part.

Some of her older great-grandchildren such as Prince George, aged eight, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Mia Tindall, also eight, may attend, although their involvement is not yet confirmed. The most recent additions to the family, including the Sussexes’ son Archie, three, and daughter Lilibet, who turns one next Saturday, are thought unlikely to be present.

The service will take place on Friday June 3, bringing the monarch’s nearest and dearest together. The last time the Duke and Duchess, who are due to fly over from California with their children next week, were surrounded by so many members of the Royal family was when they married at Windsor Castle in May 2018. The Duke of York will also be among the congregants in what is expected to be his sole appearance of the festivities. The Queen’s relatives will attend as family members, meaning the Sussexes and Prince Andrew, who are no longer working members of the Royal family, will attend in a private capacity.

The monarch’s participation is unlikely to be confirmed until the day, but it is said to be one of the jubilee events she is particularly keen to attend. The service will be the only public event of the four-day celebration for which she will be surrounded by all four of her children – the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, Prince Andrew and the Earl of Wessex.

[From The Telegraph]

The Telegraph also talks about how the Queen will be unable to walk up the steps into the Cathedral and people are trying to make arrangements for her to “make her way in through a side entrance without being photographed if necessary.” The whole shebang will start at 11 am, meaning that’s when the arrivals begin. Everybody is expected to come out for this, all of the Queen’s children, grandchildren, cousins and distant relations. Princess Margaret’s (grown, adult) children will be there too. It will be a lot like the service of thanksgiving for Prince Philip, I think, only probably fewer foreign monarchs visiting for the day.

So, prepare yourselves. We’re going to be inundated with stories about how William and Kate plan to “snub” Meghan and Harry at the service, or how Meghan has to sit in the back, or how “emotional” Harry argued with his father about the order of arrivals or some such nonsense. Y’all know it’s coming. Some poor palace aide is running to the Daily Mail as I write this, crying about how Harry and Meghan “blind-sided the Queen” with their demands!

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

When people ask me what I do, I should start saying “I count buttons for a living.” When did this even start? It’s been years. The Duchess of Cambridge’s button obsession ebbs and flows, but the buttons are more of a constant than her wiglets, sausage curls or her twirly miniskirts. Buttons are all she has left. And she hoards them. Kate and William were at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday for a rainy garden party, and Kate wore 32 buttons. Twenty buttons down the front, and six buttons on each cuff, making a grand total of 32 buttons. I counted.

The dress itself is a repeat. I usually have a half-decent memory for Kate’s button-slathered clothes, but I don’t remember this. The piece was “designed” and made by Kate’s “private dressmaker.” She truly called up her private dressmaker and said “I want something will lots of tiny buttons, a high neck with a baby ruffle and Downton Abbey vibes.” Hello Magazine claimed that Kate was having a “Bridgerton moment” and that this is a “Regency look.” All of that is a lie. This is straight-up Victorian/Edwardian, which makes more sense because Kate wishes she lived in Downton Abbey. Also: the earrings seem to be new. I would imagine they’re quite pricey.

I just looked it up – Kate previously wore this dress to that Buckingham Palace reception for the anniversary of Prince Charles’s investiture as Prince of Wales. It happened in 2019 and pregnant Meghan was there.

PS… People were really coming through with the receipts, my goodness! This dress was made by Ulyana Sergeenko, a Russian designer who uses the n-word.

LOL @ Princess Beatrice. I actually love her cute dress, but that stupid headband/headpiece ruins it. Why is Beatrice copykeening Kate?

Photos courtesy of Instar.

The latest Thomas Markle stunt is playing out in the British tabloids, likely because they designed it and orchestrated it. Thomas has been hospitalized with “stroke-like symptoms,” although nothing has been confirmed by a doctor or anything. It reminds me a lot of Thomas’s heart attacks before the 2018 Sussex wedding – after claiming to be under medical supervision, it appeared as if Thomas Markle just wandered around, staying in various cheap motels, drinking beer and watching TV. In any case, the dumb conversation is “will Meghan visit her father?” The answer is no.

Duncan Larcombe, a royal author and former royal editor for the Sun, told The Daily Beast: “Meghan hasn’t released any statement and I doubt she intends to go down there. That bridge is burned. If you look at what he did before the wedding, that’s hardly surprising. He has claimed it was naivety, but it was clearly duplicitous.”

Meghan’s spokespeople did not respond to emails seeking comment on whether she intended to visit her father or would contribute to his medical bills, suggesting such a turn of events was unlikely.

Lady Colin Campbell, the society author and YouTuber who had been planning to host Thomas at her home Castle Goring over the jubilee, told The Daily Beast: “If she’s clever, she will find a way to visit and reconcile. Let’s see if Netflix lean on her. They might well do so. Filthy lucre might work where decency failed.”

[From The Daily Beast]

Ah, yes, Lady Colin Campbell is intimately involved with this mess. Apparently, she was working hand-in-hand with Dan Wootton to bring Thomas to the UK. Thomas made plans to stay at Lady Colin’s home, and she planned to “escort him to a series of grand events, including Royal Ascot, as well as to various private aristocratic homes.” According to Eden Confidential, Lady Colin also “hired a dinner jacket” and had organized “a black-tie dinner” for him at Castle Goring, her home. According to the Daily Beast, Thomas’s plans to go to the UK were somewhat contingent on the idea that Meghan and Harry would not be there though:

The Daily Beast understands that Thomas originally made the decision to come to the U.K. under the assumption that Harry and Meghan would not be coming, and had reservations about going through with the trip when it was revealed earlier this month they would be attending.

Lady Colin told The Daily Beast: “I have never commented on house guests at Castle Goring and I don’t intend to start now. However, I feel very strongly that Thomas Markle has been unfairly deprived of his dignity by his thankless daughter and pathetic son-in-law. I regard him as the living embodiment of King Lear, and I see it as the duty of all upstanding people to stand up for him.”

[From The Daily Beast]

I have to ask: are British people okay? Because this is the trashiest f–king thing I’ve ever seen. What is the market for this over in Salt Island? In addition to Thomas Markle’s intimate conversations with Dan Wootton and Lady Colin Campbell, it turns out he was also in frequent conversation with Tom Bower, who is writing some kind of unhinged “biography” on Meghan. And these are the people claiming – in completely bad faith – that Meghan absolutely needs to go and see her toxic father. Nope, nope, nope.

My big question is this: did “Thomas Markle’s stroke” ruin all of these unhinged plans, or was it the culmination of a certain plan?

Screencaps courtesy of GB News, 60 Minutes Australia, ITV and the Sun.

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Just hours after nineteen little kids were murdered in their classrooms, Texas’s Governor Abbott attended a political fundraiser 300 miles away from Uvalde. I wouldn’t be surprised if Abbott and the Texas Republicans were already fundraising on their pro-dead child political stances. The day after the Uvalde massacre of children, Gov. Abbott organized a press conference with all of the relevant law enforcement represented alongside him. Beto O’Rourke attended. Beto is running for governor of Texas. Beto interrupted Abbott’s presser and challenged him to do more to protect Texans and children. The cops moved Beto out of the press conference. What was remarkable is that many of the journalists there for Abbott’s presser followed Beto out and they covered Beto’s impromptu press conference outside the town hall building:

Apparently, Republicans are mad about this? They think Beto is “rude” and that he shouldn’t calmly challenge Gov. Abbott about how the Republican Party is the Party of Murdered Children. The same Republicans who think that armed insurrection is A-OK have an issue with an unarmed political candidate calmly speaking truth to power in what was one of the most effective pieces of political theater I’ve ever seen.

Meanwhile, Gov. Abbott blames the whole thing on a mental health crisis… all while gutting Texas’s mental health resources.

Texas Gov. Abbott says the Uvalde school shooter had a “mental health challenge” and the state needed to “do a better job with mental health” — yet in April he slashed $211M from the department that oversees mental health programs. https://t.co/psXFaffu4q

— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 26, 2022

The reaction to Beto in that moment shows how rarely those men are pushed at all to answer for their choices and their advocacy, how thin-skinned they are, how much they don’t want to have to answer for anything. W/in 15 seconds there’s a cop in his face and men cursing at him.

— Jessica Luther (@jessicawluther) May 25, 2022

god this is powerful pic.twitter.com/1RkHgCuMsH

— Keith Edwards (@keithedwards) May 25, 2022

The thing I like about Beto’s stunt is it shows a willingness to try anything at this point. Which is exactly the emergency stance every Democrat should be taking right now.

— Schooley (@Rschooley) May 26, 2022

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Getty.

Steven Tyler voluntarily checked into rehab after relapsing, so Aerosmith has canceled all of their summer concerts. [Dlisted]
The Honest Trailer for Morbius, which was a trainwreck. [OMG Blog]
Tom Hiddleston was on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night. [Just Jared]
Ben Affleck & Jennifer Lopez kissed at the airport. [LaineyGossip]
Is anyone watching Made for Love? It sounds good. [Pajiba]
Tilda Swinton’s shirtdress reinvention. [Go Fug Yourself]
We’re coming up on the anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. [Towleroad]
How to treat a UTI. [Buzzfeed]
Seeking Sister Wife’s Season 4 has a trailer. [Starcasm]
Kim Kardashian is a Beyond Meat pusher. [Egotastic]
Noomi Rapace’s Celine is so ill-fitting and sad. [RCFA]