Thanks Martini Glambassador! I suggested a Neil tabs, and you came through!
This is a really interesting situation, and (stunningly) not really anyone's fault. Neil is just doing what he is wired to do--come back to where he was born, in order to shed. Neil's mother had him at this beach, instead of with the elephant seal colony she's a part of, because you know how due dates are, etched in sand. So he keeps coming back, in spite of being transported far away at one point so that he couldn't come back; we see how that turned out. I do think we should have a go fund me for the town, so they can repair and replace the stuff he knocks over each time he comes back. The kind of scary part is that he's only HALF grown, and will be about FOUR TONS when he's mature (seriously). Hopefully by that time he will have found mates at actual elephant seal habitats, and might stop coming back and wrecking stuff in this town. Meanwhile, he's my spirit animal.
Has anyone considered designing the very best seal scratching and rubbing apparatus ever, and permanently installing a couple of them on a convenient beach for a giant seal?
Neil is always facing up to and knocking down vertical stuff; it's the natural behavior with his kind but it does get in the way of his seasonal human community. But I love Neil.
Number one on “the TicTac”. Insert “Sure Jan” gif here.
McConnell has been brain dead for awhile. How could they even tell? And you KNOW that they are trying to do some hinkey thing to not have a special election.
So if Platner drops out what are the Dems options?
I don't know why the aides to Mitch McDonald can't be more forcoming about the Senator's health and prospects for recovery. If he was found unconscious and CPR had to be administered there is a great chance for brain injury, and that needs to be discussed. Pretending all is well is such a "Weekend at Bernie's" thing.
""Well, that's what hurt my relationship with NATO because Greenland doesn't help Denmark. Denmark doesn't spend money to really help Greenland, but it's an important part for the United States, and it's surrounded by China ships and Russian ships… That should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark," Trump told reporters while in Ankara, Turkey. Trump also suggested that the U.S. may pull its soldiers out of Europe, framing their NATO deployment not as mutual defense, but as a costly and unreturned favor." [HuffPost]
“If he was to step down it would only be with a guarantee of being replaced by a candidate who he believes is true to the values and vision and policy agenda of the campaign that Maine voted for." Fuck off. Unlike the Rethuglifascists, we don’t knowingly vote for rapists and abusers.
Geez - that bullshit about TikTok REALLY confirms Trump's mental disability - and that shit from Kevin McCarthy shows how easily Republicans ( even failed ones ) lie.
Has the Orange Asshole started yelling that the Belgium win was rigged? I'm not going to bother to find his quoted words on this, but while trying to excuse his interference ( which he claims was not interference ), he said if the US wins, fine, but if Belgium wins, it was rigged.
This asshole is so fixated on everything that he sees as being against him must be "rigged" ( or "communist" ), he only reinforces the idea that he is not cognitively competent.
He knows these things – polls, games, elections – aren't rigged. But he also knows that he can manipulate his supporters by claiming they are. They know nothing is rigged also, but play along because they're total assholes.
My LAST thought on this, I promise: I didn't realize that AOC never backed Platner (the acclaim seemed so unanimous), so yeah. I wonder if what turned her off, in addition to his general toxicity, was the Reddit post about why "black people don't tip," based on his bartending experience. Honestly, that was enough for me.
Perhaps his rape apologetics and victim-blaming on Reddit?
The racist Reddit posts?
The stint with Blackwater?
The Nazi tattoo?
She could smell that he was a rich kid cosplaying as a working-class hero (his parents set him up with his oyster farm, and his primary customer is his mother's restaurant)?
How curiously well-funded he was even though he came out of seemingly nowhere?
I'm sure I'm the minority here, but A) I don't find Tiger Beat on the Potomac a credible source of anything but Rethug retreads and MAGA Lite thinly disguised as 'investigative journalism' LOL B) I didn't find the story extremely credible OR extremely thorough C) I don't like Platner and never did, but....shades of Franken. Some deeply disturbing similarities here.
Seems to me like the rap on the Franken allegations was that for the named accuser, "It was just a picture! It was just a joke! It was all staged!" And for the unnamed accusers, "How do we know if any of it's real if they won't put their names on their accusations!"
Now, we have multiple women coming forward, putting their names and faces on their accounts, giving details that go far beyond a joke picture. We have dates, times, therapist notes, contemporaneous accounts to friends, and descriptions of what he did like this:
"That night in late 2021, she said she had exchanged text messages with him and told him not to come over, saying she wasn’t in the mood for company. Later that evening, she said she realized when she heard a sound on the stairs that he had let himself into her house, which was unlocked.
"Platner came up the stairs, Racicot said, to where she was on a couch. He got on top of her and kept grabbing her, she said, while she repeatedly told him to stop and that she wasn’t interested. Racicot said she smelled alcohol on his breath and believed he was “almost blackout drunk” because Platner ignored her protests and continued to grab her after knocking over an antique sewing kit, spilling small needles everywhere.
"“I had been telling him these words, like: ‘No, don’t,’” she recalled.
"“And, the look on his face and realizing what was happening, I just realized that, like, I am in a situation where there’s no consent here,” she said.
"Racicot said she tried to separate herself from Platner by telling him she couldn’t be in that room anymore, after which he followed her to her bedroom and had sex with her against her will. She said he also ejaculated inside of her despite her telling him not to, as she was not using birth control at the time.
"She went to clean herself up, she said, and when she returned, Platner had fallen asleep. She contemplated waking him up to kick him out, but worried he could hurt someone driving in the state he was in.
"The following morning, she said, Platner tried to put his arm around her and she pushed him away. She said she asked him whether he remembered what had happened the previous night; according to Racicot, Platner said he didn’t remember. Racicot said she told him to leave and never contact her again.
"Racicot said she waited several weeks until she got her period to ensure she wasn’t pregnant, then sent Platner a private message on Instagram saying that the encounter was not consensual and she did not want to hear from him ever again. "
So, miss me with that bullshit about this being MAGA Lite. It's pretty clear you just don't believe any women at all when it comes to male politicians who rustle your jimmies. Or just any women at all.
If this rape accusation was the only black mark, it would still be really bad, but maybe one might give him the benefit of the doubt, absent a legal conviction.
But there are so many other red flags, along with other accusations of inappropriate or rough behavior toward women, that the negatives are overwhelming. Platter shouldn't get any consideration just because he might be able to beat Collins. That factor is irrelevant, given his conduct.
Joe Rogan has opinions! Knock me over with the tiniest feather you can find.
But Joe Rogan having opinions about.....rap music? STAY IN YOUR FUCKING LANE JOE!
What next? Joe Rogan gonna opine on mathematical Homotopy Theory being woke? Joe Rogan gonna shove JD Vance aside and 'splain morality to Pope Leo? Joe Rogan just gotta weigh in on why the tunnel connecting Madagascar to fucking Topeka Kansas is really really important on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and isn't important on Mondays?
Fuck the fuck clean off Joe Rogan! You ain't got a thing to say worth shit! You ain't shit!
The very popular Neil the Seal in yer hed gif: https://martiniambassador.substack.com/p/the-return-of-neil-the-seal
And your meme chat: https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/2cd6a188-82d3-456f-b5e6-927b943106ac?utm_source=share
That guy is Godzillaing all over town.
The Barking Seal barks
when she feels happy
and flaps her flippers
when she feels flappy
He’s been entertaining me all week. Now I want to go to Tasmania.
Does he have a busking permit? Maybe his fossiking license also too? Rubbing up against them rocks may turn up something.
But whar is his bucket?
Thanks Martini Glambassador! I suggested a Neil tabs, and you came through!
This is a really interesting situation, and (stunningly) not really anyone's fault. Neil is just doing what he is wired to do--come back to where he was born, in order to shed. Neil's mother had him at this beach, instead of with the elephant seal colony she's a part of, because you know how due dates are, etched in sand. So he keeps coming back, in spite of being transported far away at one point so that he couldn't come back; we see how that turned out. I do think we should have a go fund me for the town, so they can repair and replace the stuff he knocks over each time he comes back. The kind of scary part is that he's only HALF grown, and will be about FOUR TONS when he's mature (seriously). Hopefully by that time he will have found mates at actual elephant seal habitats, and might stop coming back and wrecking stuff in this town. Meanwhile, he's my spirit animal.
Has anyone considered designing the very best seal scratching and rubbing apparatus ever, and permanently installing a couple of them on a convenient beach for a giant seal?
Neil’s Needs charity foundation… let’s go.
NEIL!
They are MY traffic control knick knacks!
Neil's a Scottish soccer fan
Not exactly the Seal of Good Housekeeping.
Ah Neil! I was just down there last week. He's a bit of a rascal.
Tell him I love him!
Come home from the pub, Neil. Yer drunk.
Neil just wanna have fu-un.......
Neil is always facing up to and knocking down vertical stuff; it's the natural behavior with his kind but it does get in the way of his seasonal human community. But I love Neil.
I LOVE YOU, NEIL!!!
Poor guy, where are all his seal buds?
Most elephant seals live further south, but he was born on the coast of Tasmania and returns twice a year to molt.
He has a felony record, as I recall. Might be shaming.
He's off track, he keeps doing this. I don't think they've figured it out.
"Welp." Excellent!
"After all that work, I'm pooped!"
Could be worse. Could be purple. https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/06/30/Ano-Nuevo-State-Park-purple-seal/9991782837995/
Number one on “the TicTac”. Insert “Sure Jan” gif here.
McConnell has been brain dead for awhile. How could they even tell? And you KNOW that they are trying to do some hinkey thing to not have a special election.
So if Platner drops out what are the Dems options?
I heard there were actually good candidates who might be willing to run.
I don't know why the aides to Mitch McDonald can't be more forcoming about the Senator's health and prospects for recovery. If he was found unconscious and CPR had to be administered there is a great chance for brain injury, and that needs to be discussed. Pretending all is well is such a "Weekend at Bernie's" thing.
Whatever happened to Marcie? I'd rather read more Marcie and less Evan.
I love Marcie, but I definitely want to read all the Evan we can get.
""Well, that's what hurt my relationship with NATO because Greenland doesn't help Denmark. Denmark doesn't spend money to really help Greenland, but it's an important part for the United States, and it's surrounded by China ships and Russian ships… That should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark," Trump told reporters while in Ankara, Turkey. Trump also suggested that the U.S. may pull its soldiers out of Europe, framing their NATO deployment not as mutual defense, but as a costly and unreturned favor." [HuffPost]
Maybe he'll die over there…
“If he was to step down it would only be with a guarantee of being replaced by a candidate who he believes is true to the values and vision and policy agenda of the campaign that Maine voted for." Fuck off. Unlike the Rethuglifascists, we don’t knowingly vote for rapists and abusers.
Geez - that bullshit about TikTok REALLY confirms Trump's mental disability - and that shit from Kevin McCarthy shows how easily Republicans ( even failed ones ) lie.
Sure happy someone can see his posts. Half of it is white space for me.
It's gonna be a loooooong week....
Has the Orange Asshole started yelling that the Belgium win was rigged? I'm not going to bother to find his quoted words on this, but while trying to excuse his interference ( which he claims was not interference ), he said if the US wins, fine, but if Belgium wins, it was rigged.
This asshole is so fixated on everything that he sees as being against him must be "rigged" ( or "communist" ), he only reinforces the idea that he is not cognitively competent.
He knows these things – polls, games, elections – aren't rigged. But he also knows that he can manipulate his supporters by claiming they are. They know nothing is rigged also, but play along because they're total assholes.
That certainly has the ring of truth. It's always been hard to believe the shit that Trump says and "believes", and MAGA is even worse at it.
How can it be that all the host countries have lost! Stollen!
I can't help remembering Gary Hart and John Edwards today.
IIRC, those were consensual affairs.
That said, it blows my mind how this shit happens over and over again, and the guys ALWAYS think they won’t get caught.
They were consensual, and yet the scandals ended both their careers. How times have changed.
My LAST thought on this, I promise: I didn't realize that AOC never backed Platner (the acclaim seemed so unanimous), so yeah. I wonder if what turned her off, in addition to his general toxicity, was the Reddit post about why "black people don't tip," based on his bartending experience. Honestly, that was enough for me.
As a former bartender, I'd be right there with AOC if she thought, "I know that kind of guy." You can spot 'em the minute they walk through the door.
Perhaps his rape apologetics and victim-blaming on Reddit?
The racist Reddit posts?
The stint with Blackwater?
The Nazi tattoo?
She could smell that he was a rich kid cosplaying as a working-class hero (his parents set him up with his oyster farm, and his primary customer is his mother's restaurant)?
How curiously well-funded he was even though he came out of seemingly nowhere?
Who knows?
The Blackwater stint was where I noped out completely.
I'm sure I'm the minority here, but A) I don't find Tiger Beat on the Potomac a credible source of anything but Rethug retreads and MAGA Lite thinly disguised as 'investigative journalism' LOL B) I didn't find the story extremely credible OR extremely thorough C) I don't like Platner and never did, but....shades of Franken. Some deeply disturbing similarities here.
Oh, and 'zuzu'? NO rules of evidence apply in your world, dear. You only do guilty until proven innocent.
Huh.
Seems to me like the rap on the Franken allegations was that for the named accuser, "It was just a picture! It was just a joke! It was all staged!" And for the unnamed accusers, "How do we know if any of it's real if they won't put their names on their accusations!"
Now, we have multiple women coming forward, putting their names and faces on their accounts, giving details that go far beyond a joke picture. We have dates, times, therapist notes, contemporaneous accounts to friends, and descriptions of what he did like this:
"That night in late 2021, she said she had exchanged text messages with him and told him not to come over, saying she wasn’t in the mood for company. Later that evening, she said she realized when she heard a sound on the stairs that he had let himself into her house, which was unlocked.
"Platner came up the stairs, Racicot said, to where she was on a couch. He got on top of her and kept grabbing her, she said, while she repeatedly told him to stop and that she wasn’t interested. Racicot said she smelled alcohol on his breath and believed he was “almost blackout drunk” because Platner ignored her protests and continued to grab her after knocking over an antique sewing kit, spilling small needles everywhere.
"“I had been telling him these words, like: ‘No, don’t,’” she recalled.
"“And, the look on his face and realizing what was happening, I just realized that, like, I am in a situation where there’s no consent here,” she said.
"Racicot said she tried to separate herself from Platner by telling him she couldn’t be in that room anymore, after which he followed her to her bedroom and had sex with her against her will. She said he also ejaculated inside of her despite her telling him not to, as she was not using birth control at the time.
"She went to clean herself up, she said, and when she returned, Platner had fallen asleep. She contemplated waking him up to kick him out, but worried he could hurt someone driving in the state he was in.
"The following morning, she said, Platner tried to put his arm around her and she pushed him away. She said she asked him whether he remembered what had happened the previous night; according to Racicot, Platner said he didn’t remember. Racicot said she told him to leave and never contact her again.
"Racicot said she waited several weeks until she got her period to ensure she wasn’t pregnant, then sent Platner a private message on Instagram saying that the encounter was not consensual and she did not want to hear from him ever again. "
So, miss me with that bullshit about this being MAGA Lite. It's pretty clear you just don't believe any women at all when it comes to male politicians who rustle your jimmies. Or just any women at all.
I've watched enough "Perry Mason" to know that therapist's notes are hearsay evidence.
We’re not in a court of law here. FRE doesn’t apply.
Understood. But I would hate to lose a candidate who could win in November because he unjustly lost in the court of public opinion now.
If this rape accusation was the only black mark, it would still be really bad, but maybe one might give him the benefit of the doubt, absent a legal conviction.
But there are so many other red flags, along with other accusations of inappropriate or rough behavior toward women, that the negatives are overwhelming. Platter shouldn't get any consideration just because he might be able to beat Collins. That factor is irrelevant, given his conduct.
Joe Rogan has opinions! Knock me over with the tiniest feather you can find.
But Joe Rogan having opinions about.....rap music? STAY IN YOUR FUCKING LANE JOE!
What next? Joe Rogan gonna opine on mathematical Homotopy Theory being woke? Joe Rogan gonna shove JD Vance aside and 'splain morality to Pope Leo? Joe Rogan just gotta weigh in on why the tunnel connecting Madagascar to fucking Topeka Kansas is really really important on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and isn't important on Mondays?
Fuck the fuck clean off Joe Rogan! You ain't got a thing to say worth shit! You ain't shit!
Here Joe! Learn a thing before you open your mouth again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homotopy_theory
Every time a judge rules against Trump and his minions* a kitten gets its wings!
-----
* admittedly, Trump may BE a minion for higher ups, but you get the gist of it, and the kittens rather like it, selfish bastards
This is the best comment of the day.
Winged Kittens!
The best kind!
Catwings!
https://www.ursulakleguin.com/catwings
Total Fan Service!
To help along the convicted felon's mass deportation plan you now have mass hearings. Do better, Seattle Customs Judge: https://www.kuow.org/stories/immigration-courts-are-using-a-new-tactic-to-speed-up-deportations