Monday, July 13, 2026

HEY NANCY MACE, THE SUPERVILLAIN YOU'RE LOOKING FOR MIGHT BE A WHITE GUY IN A SUIT

Nancy Mace began expressing interest in South Carolina's now-vacant U.S. Senate seat before Lindsey Graham's body was even cold. She -- or, rather, the unnamed surrogate who spoke to The Hill on her behalf -- revealed her plans in the most graceless manner imaginable:
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) is considering a run to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in the Senate.

Asked about interest in replacing Graham, a person familiar with Mace’s thinking told The Hill Sunday morning: “YOLO” — the saying, “You Only Live Once.”
I didn't even like Lindsey Graham and that offends me. (I assume that the "person familiar with Mace’s thinking" was Mace herself.)

Mace finished fifth in the recent gubernatorial primary in her state, so I don't expect her to win the upcoming Senate primary. But I expect her to work quite a bit of Islamophobia into her campaign (and into her likely future career as a podcaster).

Before Graham died, Mace was posting this at her congressional Twitter account:


And this at her personal account:


(That's a Robert Crumb drawing meant to accompany a Charles Bukowski short story. I suspect Mace doesn't know that.)

Mace also retweeted this:


When I first saw this tweet, I wasn't sure who was being blamed here. But the answer is clear from the responses to the original tweet.


Rational Wiki tells us:
Knights Templar International is a far-right 'news' organization.... As hinted by their name, they claim to be defenders of Christianity against the Muslim invaders and haven't quite realised that the Third Crusade ended a while ago. This hate group is not to be confused with the benign Knights Templar, a Masonic organization which completely disavows Knights Templar International.
The burned church is in Bushwick, Brooklyn, a formerly Black neighborhood that's been aggressively gentrified over the past couple of decades. Islamicist arson seems highly unlikely in this case -- Black Christians and Muslims have generally coexisted peacefully in New York for a long time.

Mace, Roy, and Knights Templar International think Muslims are the culprits here, but even the New York Post doesn't believe that. The Post says the fire might have been deliberately set, as do other local reports. Brownstoner tells us:
A video shows a person walking back and forth in an area outside the South Bushwick Reformed Church not generally accessible to the public shortly before a fire ravaged the historic structure on Friday, June 19.

Security video from a property neighboring the church shows a person making repeat trips to a side of the wood frame building that is rarely accessed by the public just before the fire started.
But as New Yorkers know, the arsonist (if there was one) could be a mentally ill person, or someone with a non-ideological vendetta against the church -- or the fire could be related, as so many things are in New York, to the real estate market.

And, in fact, the pastor of the church, which has landmark status, has been resisting offers from real estate developers. The neighborhood news site Grime Square reports:
... local developers had been closely watching one of the last parts of the area that has yet to be redeveloped.

“I understand the building is landmarked. Are you still interested in selling the property? I currently represent a buyer who would be interested in purchasing and is familiar with landmarked properties,” Gregory Bartlett, principal at RBM Brokerage, had written to [Pastor James E.] Steward just last month. What the broker had in mind is unclear, as de-designating a landmarked building is exceedingly rare.

An empty plot is precious in Bushwick, where asking prices for homes are reaching seven figures. On Friday, Steward said he was receiving “At least 10 [calls] per day.” He advised he had not returned any developer’s call.

“Very sorry to hear about the fire over the weekend,” wrote Anthony Gagliano, a broker with Strategic Realty Partners. “The idea is for the development team to take on the cost and responsibility of reconstructing the church’s superstructure and exterior envelope... In exchange, they would seek to acquire certain development rights associated with the property.” Gagliano sent the email two days after the fire.
So maybe this is just about money, prime real estate, and development rights -- which makes a lot more sense in New York than arson as a tool of jihad.

Here's another Mace tweet from just before Lindsey Graham's death:


This isn't true. But if Mace wants to know why Democrats are increasingly open to voting for candidates who are skeptical of capitalism, she might want to consider the possibility that capitalists brought this anger on themselves.
Posted by Steve M. at 11:21 AM

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