Randy Blake Farenholdt was a one-day Main-Person-on-Social-Media back in 2016, but it’s been a while since he made the national news…
Former GOP Rep. Blake Farenthold, who won a shock upset in 2010 but resigned in disgrace in 2018 following a sexual harassment scandal, has died at 63
— The Downballot (@the-downballot.com) June 20, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Per the Texas Tribune:
Former U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold, a four-term Republican congressman from Corpus Christi and local radio host, died this week from a heart attack after struggling with chronic liver disease, according to a close friend who worked on his radio show. He was 63…
Farenthold, a local radio personality and stepson of former state legislator Sissy Farenthold, began his congressional tenure in 2011 after he unseated the long-serving Democratic Rep. Solomon Ortiz as part of a nationwide red wave two years into President Barack Obama’s first term.
A software policy expert, lawyer and quieter member of the Texas delegation, Farenthold coasted to reelection every two years. He served on the Oversight, Judiciary and Transportation committees…
But Farenthold’s time in Washington came to a fraught end in April 2018, when he resigned from Congress amid allegations of sexual harassment, an ethics investigation and pressure from the Republican leadership to step down. His seat is now represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Michael Cloud.
Politico reported in December 2017 that Farenthold had settled a sexual harassment lawsuit brought against him by a former staffer using $84,000 in taxpayer money that he promised to pay back, but did not ever appear to do so.
In announcing his retirement, Farenthold said that his lack of experience in politics paved the way for turmoil in his office.
“I’d never served in public office before,” he said in 2017. “I had no idea how to run a congressional office and, as a result, I allowed a workplace culture to take root in my office that was too permissive and decidedly unprofessional.”…
I haven't thought about him in ages.
Was he buried in his ducky jammies?!?— CL (says protect trans kids and adults) (@clc1905.bsky.social) June 22, 2025 at 4:09 AM
Elon’s favorite DOGE boy Edward Coristine can only hope he’ll live long enough to outgrow his current (self-assigned) nickname…
The technologist Edward Coristine, a key operative in Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency who's gone by the name "Big Balls" online, has resigned, the White House tells WIRED. www.wired.com/story/big-ba…
— WIRED (@wired.com) June 24, 2025 at 5:22 PM
===
Rip big balls
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) June 24, 2025 at 5:39 PM
War for Ukraine Day 1,216: Russia Continues To Strike Ukrainian Civilian Targets
NotMax
What data did Coristine download onto thumb drives and take with him?
My guess is an amount well in excess of zero.
Baud
I hate that that douche has ruined an excellent AC/DC song.
SpaceUnit
Sorry, but I’m reserving my remorse for those who weren’t the political equivalent of an extra in Porky’s
I’m sure he’ll be missed at the local Taco Bell.
jonas
Is that other douchey teenage techbro still running our cybersecurity efforts?
sab
@jonas: I thought he was still running our whole internal anti-terrorist effort.
According to the MSM we don’t have an internal terrorist threat issue, although state legislators and foreign embassy people are being murdered here. Apparently that is now just normal urban and suburban life.
JoyceH
@sab: No, you’re thinking of the 22 year old grocery store clerk. Big Balls is the 19 year old hacker.
NotMax
@JoyceH
Programs! Get yer programs here! Can’t tell the bevy of perfidious poltroons apart without a program!
:)
Mathguy
I’m just hoping that I live to see Big Balls and his fellow pond scum serve time for the damage they’ve done to the country, but I doubt that will ever happen.
raven
Workin’ on the railroad
Sleepin’ on the ground
Eatin’ saltine crackers
Ten cents a pound
Big ball’s in Cowtown
We’ll all go down
Big ball’s in Cowtown
We’ll dance aroun
https://youtu.be/FeMWfjWe_dY?si=5NvkOP4IrWJrNlkC
eclare
@JoyceH:
I thought they were the same?
Baud
@eclare:
I could see them using clones.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
One of the realities these DOGE guys are probably facing at this point is they all want to make 7 figures and you can’t make much more than roughly $200K in the Federal Government unless you’re high up in management and even then I doubt the salary is even $300k, but maybe there or slightly higher.
They’ll face the same problem if they fire the rest of us (I’m a Fed, still hanging on so far) and try to replace us with loyalists. It’s not a get rich quick scheme and the folks drawn to that movement don’t strike me as particularly motivated by public service, and not to put too fine a point of it but they suck as bosses. So how many Trumpers can and are willing to do highly technical work for pay that’s just OK for shitty bosses? When the reward is something as intangible and meaningless to them as public service? Probably very few. And those that try probably won’t last long.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Baud: Which was the one who found a creative way to say he mowed lawns in the neighborhood? Like it still didn’t sound that impressive but much more impressive that I made a few bucks cutting grass
different-church-lady
Wait…. there was a time when Republicans would force out one of their own over sexual harrasment?
Matt McIrvin
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: That’s where legalized bribery comes in! But you probably have to be pretty high up before it makes you the big bucks.
Baud
I don’t know why they can’t create their own expert panel.
mrmoshpotato
@Mathguy: I hope this fascist trash is regularly punched in his balls for the rest of his fascist life.
Waldo
With Big Balls cut off, is Doge finally neutered?
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: But fascists’ balls that are repeatedly stomped on is what I like watching best.
BellyCat
@different-church-lady: It was the Duckie jammies that crossed the line.
Geminid
I read that former Massachusetts Sen Scott Brown is running for the New Hampsire Senate seat currently held by Jeanne Shaheen. Brown has lived in New Hampshire since his stint as Ambassador to New Zealand during the first Trump administration.
Senator Shaheen is retiring, and U.S. Rep. Chis Pappas is the likely Democratic nominee.
Ed. This will be a close race, I think.
They Call Me Noni
Damn but you top o’ the morning Jackals are full of humor and wit and I am most appreciative. I needed this hearty cackle and snort. I thank you all. Great start to my day. Carry on.
jonas
@Matt McIrvin: The real payout is when you leave government service and become a lobbyist. That’s where the big bucks are.
prostratedragon
@Baud: Of course, they always can; but under the old regime, fewer agency problems having the gov do it?
NotMax
Can just picture a throng of 19-year-old lobbyists skateboarding through the halls of Congress.
//
Baud
@prostratedragon:
Right. I understand why they relied on government before. But now that the government has fallen, I don’t understand why this isn’t a problem that the invisible hand can solve, at least temporarily.
NotMax
#25 meant to be @jonas.
Credit for sparking the thought where it’s due.
Old School
Big Balls is out of government?
I hope that doesn’t make him blue.
prostratedragon
@Baud: Game theorists’ hour has come round at last.
bjacques
I just hope this turns out to be the high point of Big Balls’ life, which ends in his forties in financial and organ failure .
montanareddog
Ducky Jammies reminds me of David Mellor, the British Tory minister in the 90s who had to resign in disgrace when his mistress sold her story to the papers (and it also came out he had been accepting free family holidays from the daughter of the Finance Director of the PLO – not a good look).
He was no oil painting either. At the time, the reaction of most women was “Eugh! How could she?”
She was significantly younger and she scrubbed up nice
brendancalling
While everyone’s gagging on Big Balls (see what I did there?), I’m left wondering if Blake’s “chronic liver disease” was self-inflicted. That’s a man who looks like he could down more than a few. His ducky pajamas remind me of a song in fact: “if the ocean was whisky and I was a duck/I’d dive to the bottom and never come up.”
Seems like Ducky PJs took those words to heart. And an article in “The Week” from 2017 confirms it: “Farenthold liked redheads especially, “regularly drank to excess, and because of his tendency to flirt, the staffers who accompanied him to Capitol Hill functions would joke that they had to be on ‘redhead patrol’ to keep him out of trouble.””
Sounds like the degenerate met a degenerate’s end. https://theweek.com/speedreads/742842/gop-rep-blake-farentholds-office-apparently-fueled-by-beer-sexual-innuendo-lewd-texts-from-lobbyists
Glidwrith
@Baud: Not an expert in public health here, but an industry scientist: there’s first gathering the expertise and paying them. The panel took YEARS to vet their experts, with the newer members observing and advising, before ever being allowed to vote.
There’s also conflict of interest and confidentiality issues, which was a part of the vetting process.
Industry probably figures waiting it out is a better deal, because it would take that much time to reconstitute the panel.
Aziz, light!
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
The highest pay you can get under the General Schedule pay scale is $195,200 and that’s only if you attain the GS-15 pay grade and keep it for 20 years while earning all 10 in-grade step increases with strong performance reviews.
Citizen Alan
Every Republican looks like a grotesque caricature of a person. Like a Spitting Image puppet brought to life.
The Lodger
@NotMax: Bevy of perfidious poltroons? I was positive that it was a plethora of perfidious poltroons.
Kayla Rudbek
@Aziz, light!: does that include the Patent Office? (although most of the GS-15s there are supervisory patent examiners who aren’t part of the union; most of the primary examiners are GS-14 and are unionized) Pay scale for examiners is different and they are also eligible for production bonuses.