I love those little waddley characters!! Saw them waddling around on the tippy-tip of the Cape of South Africa, and then they would dive face-first into the water and SHOOT LIKE A FUCKING MISSILE, all that ungainly waddling FORGOTTEN. They're remarkable!! And they have, also, like, married students' dorms, ha.
We also visited the penguins in ZA! We were at Boulder Beach (between Cape Town and the tippy-tip). We stayed at the lovely little hotel right there by the reserve.
We particularly enjoyed going out in the morning and watching them prepping for the day by preening and spreading their birdy oils on their feathers. Very cute. Love, love, loved watching them swim!(We did see ostrich mom and baby at CoGH! Awesome! Also saw rangers move cobra from middle of road. Exciting!)
WHOA. Nobody told us to watch for cobras *shudder*!!!
We have a friend on the Bakoven Beach, with all those great boulders, but the other side of that peninsula from Boulder Beach. We stayed at Llandudno, and also went to see and walk with elephants over on the other side of the Cape, at Knysna. in a reserve. Also: that Atlantic water is as cold as the water in Maine, in summer. That is COLD!!!
I signed up for "our Liz's" substack when she went solo but she stopped sending me them, Not that it mattered since she was mostly doing podcasts which I do not listen to. Ever, Whatever.
Every time these Bakayaro pull this type of stunt, demand to see what research they have, where they found their findings and other evidence, and they have to back up their claims.
Arggh. I got up earlier and started a fire and cleaned all the cats fountains and changed their filters and fed them and clean litter boxes, and then I went back to bed for almost an hour and almost slept. And now! Now, I must go adult. I have dithered I’ve done nothing about snow tires all summer long and that is now officially biting me in the butt. Yarg. Scramble-damble. I am off!
I've txt'd with Pisto75666 in Tampa and she's doing okay. She mentioned that she woke up early because it was warm in her room so I'm guessing that she's without power right now. It's "only" getting up to 80ºF there, with a low of 68º tonight, so a cool pleasant day, and freezing temperatures tonight, by Tampa standards.
The former guy outsourced quite a bit of his campaign's ground game to this clown Charlie Kirk. Tfg's daughter-in-law has gutted the Republican National Committee, as co-chair. Nobody on the RNC thought the leopards would eat *their* faces.
Charlie Kirk dropped out of community college freshman year. He started Turning Point with a 75 year old man. He goes around telling college kids they don't need an education. Too bad they all can't be financed by their "mentor."
I really can’t see how these anti-trans ads are reaching any new voters for Republicans. Every parent with a kid in school, public or private, knows kids that are LGBTQ +. I would like to think that they see these commercials as off putting as I do.
So, California Wonks, Yes! on 35, or No! on 35? Both Dems and Pubes are united in supporting it because it does good things. The League of Women Voters and some other folks are united in opposing it because it might just fuck everything up with the way it is funded by a Federal loophole that the Feds plan on closing and costing us billions and billions. Do I believe in all the shiny puppies and kittens and vote for a good thing for errybody, or do I listen to Not My Real Mom and vote for it's the dildo of truth and consequences and there's no lube or foreplay so just say no like a common Nancy Reagan?
I haven't read the pamphlet yet, been kind of a crazy week. I don't see California political ads, being closer to Reno than San Francisco or Los Angeles, so I get to laugh at their political ads instead.
Hey, media, do you want to see the weaponization of government in action? Look at FL. Look at all the ways DeSantis has used the state government to punish private citizens. What? You are too busy complaining that Harris doesn't have a detailed economic plan? Oh well then. Nevermind.
Considering Florida has been a favorite target of hurricanes probably since before recorded history, Republicans from Florida in Congress are displaying ridiculous amounts of ignorance, or understanding the ignorance of their voting base, in voting down additional aid for natural disasters. Over the past 50 years Florida has likely depended on and received more federal disaster aid than any other state. But Republican ideology of cutting every bit of government spending, now including military spending in supporting Ukraine in their fight against one of our two biggest military and political enemies, has them cutting their own throats. Safe in the knowledge right wing media, flourishing in the internet age, will never point out their hypocrisy.
That right wing bullshit is all they ever listen to so while supporting the no vote earlier on boosting FEMA funding, their memory banks have been wiped clean of that vote and now demanding FEMA hop in to cover their damages. Aid for me, but not for thee. Other states should have been prepared for these unavoidable acts of God but restricting building entire neighborhoods on increasingly extensive flood plains in Florida is interfering with our freedom and destroying the economy.
My sister lives in Tampa, and they’re still evacuated but some neighbors who stayed much closer by were able to take photos of the outside of her house. They won’t be able to get to the house for a while because of downed trees and deep flooding, but the house itself appears to have fairly minimal damage. We’re all incredibly relieved.
RE: the horribly fucked SCOTUS, here is Your New Boyfriend (because you have broken up with DKos) Uncharted Blue Where All the Good DKos Writers Went, talking about how Chief Justice Roberts has a sad because everybody's mad at his SCOTUS:
It might just be my own perception, but a couple really good writers -- Hunter, and Mark Sumner -- departed a while ago, and them constantly posting horrible AP headlines and then a mix of reddit-tier Community Diaries™ has me thinking their quality has gone down and their finance model isn't great.
In any case, Mark and Hunter are now at UB, and the general quality of writing there seems a lot better. I'm not sure how they're paying for it, but I hope it continues.
Idiot relatives update: they're perfectly fine, unscathed, and right on schedule downplaying that it was ever that dire a situation but they were prepared with life jackets and generators but none of the preparations were even necessary because they were FLOODED IN PRAYER.
Wonkpals, I am deeply troubled because there is never a lesson learned. Or if there is, it's a lesson that will not serve them well in the future if they don't luck out and landfall is directly to the north and coincides with high tide. I am troubled because I find myself wishing something would happen--not something devastating, no death, no permanent maiming or unrecoverable emotional trauma--just SOMETHING that will jolt them into using the brains they believe their god placed in their little fetal heads and remove themselves from potentially bad situations instead of counting on divine grace. Wait, that's my latent Catholic-speak coming out, not sure evangelicals talk that way. Instead of counting on Jesus covering them in Glory Glory Hurricane-Away Armor or whatnot. Anyway. Thanks for listening yesterday when I was worried.
I have a friend who was always evangelical, and an earlier conversation with her was disturbing. She and some others were in a potentially dangerous situation, and she convinced herself that god-jeebus put up an invisible force field/barrier to keep her and her faithful friends safe. I pointed out that there were some other factors at play but she wasn't having it.
In subsequent conversations about how the hand of god/jeebus personally intervened in her life, I just nod my head and say, "that's nice" almost in the voice of Shirley, the character on "Community".
We are ages old friends and I think she may be declining mentally, so I let it all slide.
UK conservatives tactical voting masterclass in their leadership contest.
Down to the final three, of two rabid loons and a "sensible" candidate, the voters decided that Mr Sensible James Cleverly (misnomer) was bound to be in the final two, so they could tactically vote to remove their least favourite loon.
Doh! Cleverley finishes third, gets knocked out, and the choice is now Rabid Loon 1 or Rabid Loon 2.
I don't think "sensible" is a word anyone would use to describe Jimly Dimly. I think "blandly incompetent in a Sunakian way" gets us a little closer.
Kemi Badenoch, by contrast, is crazier than Liz Truss, has a last name that appears to be a portmanteau of Robert Baden-Powell and Enoch Powell, and would deport her own gran to Rwanda if she thought it would get her closer to the Tory leadership. I know very little about Jenrick, other than he seems to be your typical grinning white racist, which means he will probably win.
That's ok, this will be like last time, the Tories will keep picking terrible leaders and being unpopular for a decade. Then they'll remember that the voters don't like shit heads and pick someone who is slightly less terrible than whoever is PM at that point.
It’s Pesto! Your hed gif info link: https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/pesto-penguin
And your meme chat , comrades: https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/62100256-1a2f-4bd3-a938-c41a0f875b29?utm_source=share
Gray penguin. Or gay penguin?
I am gobsmacked by the size of that "chick!" I thought it was a grown up with a fuzzy coat.
Pesto - or you can call him by his actual name, Basil.
Pesto is a flightless bird
Who likes to flap his wings
But when it comes to eating fish
He is the king of kings.
I also misread and thought that "Presto" was a cute name for him.
He looks for a moment at the beginning like he's mocking the parent (?) by walking behind, but it's so cute and I can't stand it!
Presto is their stage name
Aw.
There have been bigger penguins.
"Fossils of a 340-Pound Giant Penguin Found in New Zealand"
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/fossils-of-a-340-pound-giant-penguin-found-in-new-zealand-180981611/
Thanks!
In New Zealand, you are the salty snack
Woah!
So chonky!
Simply beautiful. What cool animals.
My avatar enjoys that chick is pigging out!
Pesto!
Cuddly, but don’t. You’ll stink like dead fish for weeks.
It would be worth it!
Pesto may be huge, but he's so cute!
More to hug!
Fluffy silly babby!
It's a Moral Imperative:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwTqC2T6q4E
Intercourse the penguin!
😆
"It was an inspired guess."
I love those little waddley characters!! Saw them waddling around on the tippy-tip of the Cape of South Africa, and then they would dive face-first into the water and SHOOT LIKE A FUCKING MISSILE, all that ungainly waddling FORGOTTEN. They're remarkable!! And they have, also, like, married students' dorms, ha.
We also visited the penguins in ZA! We were at Boulder Beach (between Cape Town and the tippy-tip). We stayed at the lovely little hotel right there by the reserve.
We particularly enjoyed going out in the morning and watching them prepping for the day by preening and spreading their birdy oils on their feathers. Very cute. Love, love, loved watching them swim!(We did see ostrich mom and baby at CoGH! Awesome! Also saw rangers move cobra from middle of road. Exciting!)
WHOA. Nobody told us to watch for cobras *shudder*!!!
We have a friend on the Bakoven Beach, with all those great boulders, but the other side of that peninsula from Boulder Beach. We stayed at Llandudno, and also went to see and walk with elephants over on the other side of the Cape, at Knysna. in a reserve. Also: that Atlantic water is as cold as the water in Maine, in summer. That is COLD!!!
I signed up for "our Liz's" substack when she went solo but she stopped sending me them, Not that it mattered since she was mostly doing podcasts which I do not listen to. Ever, Whatever.
Every time these Bakayaro pull this type of stunt, demand to see what research they have, where they found their findings and other evidence, and they have to back up their claims.
Arggh. I got up earlier and started a fire and cleaned all the cats fountains and changed their filters and fed them and clean litter boxes, and then I went back to bed for almost an hour and almost slept. And now! Now, I must go adult. I have dithered I’ve done nothing about snow tires all summer long and that is now officially biting me in the butt. Yarg. Scramble-damble. I am off!
I've txt'd with Pisto75666 in Tampa and she's doing okay. She mentioned that she woke up early because it was warm in her room so I'm guessing that she's without power right now. It's "only" getting up to 80ºF there, with a low of 68º tonight, so a cool pleasant day, and freezing temperatures tonight, by Tampa standards.
BIDEN'S IN YER PIPES, STEALIN' YER LEAD!!!!!! https://www.reuters.com/world/us/final-rule-epa-requires-removal-all-us-lead-pipes-decade-2024-10-08/
Fact check: true
https://x.com/OGrady_Texas/status/1844377282204533152
The former guy outsourced quite a bit of his campaign's ground game to this clown Charlie Kirk. Tfg's daughter-in-law has gutted the Republican National Committee, as co-chair. Nobody on the RNC thought the leopards would eat *their* faces.
quoting
https://x.com/nancyjean1234/status/1844265094970212849
Charlie Kirk dropped out of community college freshman year. He started Turning Point with a 75 year old man. He goes around telling college kids they don't need an education. Too bad they all can't be financed by their "mentor."
Love my coffee ☕ with Tabs in the morning ! Will reStack ASAP 💯👍
I really can’t see how these anti-trans ads are reaching any new voters for Republicans. Every parent with a kid in school, public or private, knows kids that are LGBTQ +. I would like to think that they see these commercials as off putting as I do.
So, California Wonks, Yes! on 35, or No! on 35? Both Dems and Pubes are united in supporting it because it does good things. The League of Women Voters and some other folks are united in opposing it because it might just fuck everything up with the way it is funded by a Federal loophole that the Feds plan on closing and costing us billions and billions. Do I believe in all the shiny puppies and kittens and vote for a good thing for errybody, or do I listen to Not My Real Mom and vote for it's the dildo of truth and consequences and there's no lube or foreplay so just say no like a common Nancy Reagan?
I haven't read the pamphlet yet, been kind of a crazy week. I don't see California political ads, being closer to Reno than San Francisco or Los Angeles, so I get to laugh at their political ads instead.
Hey, media, do you want to see the weaponization of government in action? Look at FL. Look at all the ways DeSantis has used the state government to punish private citizens. What? You are too busy complaining that Harris doesn't have a detailed economic plan? Oh well then. Nevermind.
This right here!!
Considering Florida has been a favorite target of hurricanes probably since before recorded history, Republicans from Florida in Congress are displaying ridiculous amounts of ignorance, or understanding the ignorance of their voting base, in voting down additional aid for natural disasters. Over the past 50 years Florida has likely depended on and received more federal disaster aid than any other state. But Republican ideology of cutting every bit of government spending, now including military spending in supporting Ukraine in their fight against one of our two biggest military and political enemies, has them cutting their own throats. Safe in the knowledge right wing media, flourishing in the internet age, will never point out their hypocrisy.
That right wing bullshit is all they ever listen to so while supporting the no vote earlier on boosting FEMA funding, their memory banks have been wiped clean of that vote and now demanding FEMA hop in to cover their damages. Aid for me, but not for thee. Other states should have been prepared for these unavoidable acts of God but restricting building entire neighborhoods on increasingly extensive flood plains in Florida is interfering with our freedom and destroying the economy.
My sister lives in Tampa, and they’re still evacuated but some neighbors who stayed much closer by were able to take photos of the outside of her house. They won’t be able to get to the house for a while because of downed trees and deep flooding, but the house itself appears to have fairly minimal damage. We’re all incredibly relieved.
RE: the horribly fucked SCOTUS, here is Your New Boyfriend (because you have broken up with DKos) Uncharted Blue Where All the Good DKos Writers Went, talking about how Chief Justice Roberts has a sad because everybody's mad at his SCOTUS:
https://www.unchartedblue.com/chief-justice-roberts-said-to-be-shaken-weary-after-public-criticism-of-his-crap-decisions-and-crooked-court/
haha, fuck you CJOTSCOTUS Roberts.
What happened at DKos? I hadn't heard of any major kerfuffles. I occasionally read articles there, but I'm not active anymore.
I left in 2016 after the Bernie Bro debacle. It was horrible. Haven't gone back and don't ever plan to.
Oof, that was bad.
It might just be my own perception, but a couple really good writers -- Hunter, and Mark Sumner -- departed a while ago, and them constantly posting horrible AP headlines and then a mix of reddit-tier Community Diaries™ has me thinking their quality has gone down and their finance model isn't great.
In any case, Mark and Hunter are now at UB, and the general quality of writing there seems a lot better. I'm not sure how they're paying for it, but I hope it continues.
Idiot relatives update: they're perfectly fine, unscathed, and right on schedule downplaying that it was ever that dire a situation but they were prepared with life jackets and generators but none of the preparations were even necessary because they were FLOODED IN PRAYER.
Wonkpals, I am deeply troubled because there is never a lesson learned. Or if there is, it's a lesson that will not serve them well in the future if they don't luck out and landfall is directly to the north and coincides with high tide. I am troubled because I find myself wishing something would happen--not something devastating, no death, no permanent maiming or unrecoverable emotional trauma--just SOMETHING that will jolt them into using the brains they believe their god placed in their little fetal heads and remove themselves from potentially bad situations instead of counting on divine grace. Wait, that's my latent Catholic-speak coming out, not sure evangelicals talk that way. Instead of counting on Jesus covering them in Glory Glory Hurricane-Away Armor or whatnot. Anyway. Thanks for listening yesterday when I was worried.
I have a friend who was always evangelical, and an earlier conversation with her was disturbing. She and some others were in a potentially dangerous situation, and she convinced herself that god-jeebus put up an invisible force field/barrier to keep her and her faithful friends safe. I pointed out that there were some other factors at play but she wasn't having it.
In subsequent conversations about how the hand of god/jeebus personally intervened in her life, I just nod my head and say, "that's nice" almost in the voice of Shirley, the character on "Community".
We are ages old friends and I think she may be declining mentally, so I let it all slide.
From my Grandma, decades ago, about some long-forgotten topic and administered with a heavy sigh, but it has served me well in many, many situations:
“…But in the end, dearie, every one has to be stupid for themselves.”
I’m relieved for you, Marion,
At the end of the day, I’d rather have them being safe and still ignorant then
Dead and permanently ignorant.
I’m glad they’re safe!
UK conservatives tactical voting masterclass in their leadership contest.
Down to the final three, of two rabid loons and a "sensible" candidate, the voters decided that Mr Sensible James Cleverly (misnomer) was bound to be in the final two, so they could tactically vote to remove their least favourite loon.
Doh! Cleverley finishes third, gets knocked out, and the choice is now Rabid Loon 1 or Rabid Loon 2.
I don't think "sensible" is a word anyone would use to describe Jimly Dimly. I think "blandly incompetent in a Sunakian way" gets us a little closer.
Kemi Badenoch, by contrast, is crazier than Liz Truss, has a last name that appears to be a portmanteau of Robert Baden-Powell and Enoch Powell, and would deport her own gran to Rwanda if she thought it would get her closer to the Tory leadership. I know very little about Jenrick, other than he seems to be your typical grinning white racist, which means he will probably win.
That's ok, this will be like last time, the Tories will keep picking terrible leaders and being unpopular for a decade. Then they'll remember that the voters don't like shit heads and pick someone who is slightly less terrible than whoever is PM at that point.