Wednesday Afternoon SugarLinks – The Big Hush

by | May 24, 2023 | Daily Links | 235 comments

Big White Dogs Save the World’s Smallest Penguin in Australia

Just off the coast of Warrnambool city, Australia’s Middle Island is home to some very small residents, at the center of a big achievement.

The island is the only place in Australia where one can find the little penguin, which as the same suggests, is the world’s smallest—standing just 35 centimeters tall.

Starting in 1991, sedimentation and tidal patterns created a short window during the year when a tidal causeway allowed access to Middle Island from the mainland, which foxes quickly discovered and used to devastate this ground-nesting bird population.

Enter a rather unlikely hero. A local chicken farmer named Swampy Marsh had no professional background in conservation, but what he did understand over many years of keeping chickens was how to defeat or outfox foxes.

Running up to 5,000 chickens free-range, Marsh used Maremma dogs as guardians. These great big white pooches, officially known as Pastori Maremma-Abruzzesi owing to their Italian origins from the coastal region of Maremma, were excellent protectors of Marsh’s flock, and he figured that since little penguins are equally as defenseless against foxes, the same protection scheme would work.

And it did; though officially no dogs were allowed on Middle Island, the severity of the little penguins’ plight convinced Warrnambool city council to give it a go. Marsh then arrived with his dog Oddball and got to work.


 

Biden Spent $1 Billion To Get Schools Electric Buses. This Michigan District Says Theirs Hardly Work.

Michigan’s fourth-largest school district is having “significant” performance issues with its expensive electric buses, issues that come after the Biden administration spent $1 billion to “transform America’s school bus fleet” with electric models.

During an April 19 presentation to the Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education, the district’s environmental sustainability director, Emile Lauzzana, highlighted a number of issues with the district’s electric bus fleet. Those buses, Lauzzana said, have “a lot of downtime and performance issues” and aren’t “fully on the road,” despite the fact that they are “approximately five times more expensive than regular buses.” The infrastructure upgrades required to use the buses, meanwhile, were “originally estimated to be only about $50,000” but “ended up being more like $200,000,” according to Lauzzana. “I have a number of colleagues in different states who are facing similar challenges,” the district official lamented. “For the school bus market, it’s been challenging for us.”


 

If there’s a bandwagon, Hillary is ready to jump on it, dig her claws in, drain it dry with her probing hollow tongue, and wear its skin like Buffalo Bill.

“Do you want to fuck me?” Hillary whispered into the mirror. “I’d fuck me.”


 

About The Author

SugarFree

SugarFree

Your Resident Narcissistic Misogynist Rape-Culture Apologist

235 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    How many busses did they get?

    • Count Potato

      At $200K each, that’s 5,000, but probably way less that because most of that $1B went to “administrative costs”.

      • UnCivilServant

        200k? I suspect You’re underestimating the per unit costs. How much for the electrical hookups?

      • Ownbestenemy

        $200K amount was just infrastructure upgrades…I am guessing at the district’s bus depot.

        “The infrastructure upgrades required to use the buses, meanwhile, were “originally estimated to be only about $50,000” but “ended up being more like $200,000,”

    • Fatty Bolger

      Fewer than you’d think, probably.

      Electric school buses are giving kids a cleaner, but costlier, ride to class

      ESBs are expensive: Battery-electric versions of small “Type A” school buses cost roughly $250,000, versus $50,000 to $65,000 for diesel; full-size “Type C” or “Type D” buses can range from $320,000 to $440,000 in electric form, versus about $100,000 for diesel.

      The original article said they were 5x the cost of a regular bus, so these are probably on the higher end and pushing half a million each for the full sized buses.

      • R.J.

        I would think maintenance is a killer. How much of that cost is battery pack? $100,000? More? And considering the rough lives of school buses, how often would those need replacement?

      • Fatty Bolger

        Studies I saw said the batteries last 8-12 years on average, while a bus’s longevity is expected to be 12-15 years. Though it’s not unusual for well maintained buses to last 20 or more years.

      • Fatty Bolger

        I’ve seen battery replacement costs of $50K to $90K. Knowing how these things go, the upper number is probably the most realistic right now. Granted it’s possible battery costs will drop in the future due to new technologies.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Infrastructure. A fleet of chargers to go with the fleet of vehicles.

  2. Pat

    Big White Dogs Save the World’s Smallest Penguin in Australia

    Species come, species go. It’s a feel-good story, but then I wonder to myself why I should feel good or bad about nature doing its thing.

    • Count Potato

      Although a 14″ penguin might make decent pet.

      • Tonio

        Penguins are cute, clever, and funny. But they are high-maintenance.

      • Bobarian LMD

        I know what a bear an otter and a twink are, but what, specifically, is a penguin?

      • Not Adahn

        Fat guy, likes formal wear. Hanky code: black and white bandanas.

      • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

        Danny DeVito, in rotting formal wear.

      • Penguin

        (Watches intently)….

      • The Hyperbole

        Penguins is practically chickens.

      • robc

        The realization that penguins are dinosaurs just made me laugh.

  3. Count Potato

    “Eighty-six percent of transgender and nonbinary young people have said the recent raft of anti-trans bills have negatively affected their mental health.”

    Non-binary is bullshit, so that’s a useless number.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Sorry kid, don’t care: No cutting off your dick until you’re eighteen. You’ll thank me later.

      • Count Potato

        Technically, they don’t cut it off.

        *cue rainbow*

      • rhywun

        And for those who don’t know what they really do with it, count your blessings.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, the majority are top surgery and/or hormones – remember the real surge in this is with girls.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Non-binary affected by having nothing to transition into.

    • Tonio

      Sorry but this is not a mentally stable population to begin with.

      • Bobarian LMD

        More than 86% already have mental health issues to start off with. The imaginary assault of a ‘raft of anti-trans bills’ is just the thing to do ’em in.

    • Urthona

      the correct term is pro-children.

  4. Stinky Wizzleteats

    You know what else will negatively affect their mental health? Getting parts lopped off or taking life altering hormones because of a passing phase, that’s what. It’s just the modern equivalent of being Goth and except for Robert Smith and Marilyn Manson everyone grew out of it.

  5. Pat

    Eighty-six percent of transgender and nonbinary young people have said the recent raft of anti-trans bills have negatively affected their mental health.

    Protected class legislation and unsustainable spending have been negatively affecting my mental health for my entire adult life, what do I get?

    • Count Potato

      “You net a nut punch! And you get a nut punch!”
      — Libertarian Oprah

      • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

        So, Fatty Arbuckle in rotting formal wear?

    • Sean

      A tax bill?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      An IRS audit because you sound like trouble.

  6. juris imprudent

    “Do you want to fuck me?”

    Bill was not available for comment.

    • Count Potato

      Because he was busy getting a blow job from the chick who brings in the mail?

    • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

      Maybe he was buffaloed by the whole Hilary thing?

  7. Sensei

    Great music choice!

    Also love “Nemesis” on that album.

  8. The Other Kevin

    Just about everything Biden does negatively affects my mental health. Where’s my tweet?

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Government is bad for mental health.

  9. Rebel Scum

    “transform America’s school bus fleet” with “over 2,400 clean school buses that will accelerate the transition to zero emission vehicles.”

    They aren’t clean and they don’t work.

  10. Ownbestenemy

    Its good to be in the King’s circle

    From the electric bus article:
    “Administration officials repeatedly showcased the company while Biden’s energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, held up to $5 million in Proterra stock. Granholm eventually sold her 240,000 Proterra shares in May 2021, with the former Michigan governor earning a cool $1.6 million.”

    • Pat

      That evil bitch Martha Stewart had to serve prison time for her dangerous offense against the public trust though…

      • Ownbestenemy

        I applaud that aspect of her as she turned around, gave FedGov the middle finger and grew her empire.

      • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

        Plus, it gave her serious street cred.

  11. Rebel Scum

    Eighty-six percent of transgender and nonbinary young people have said the recent raft of anti-trans bills have negatively affected their mental health.

    100% of transgender already had mental health issues causing them to think they are not the gender which they were born.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Any time an adult says no to a kid the kid gets antsy. I say tough shit, you can’t always get what you want.

      • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

        Well, you can’t always get what you want, you get what you need.

      • DEG

        you get what you need.

        Like a BSA gun?

    • Fatty Bolger

      the recent raft of anti-trans bills have negatively affected their mental health.

      Mostly because they’re being told that it should.

  12. Rebel Scum

    “Do you want to fuck me?” Hillary whispered into the mirror. “I’d fuck me.”

    Bill won’t.

    • Tundra

      Never has.

      • Bobarian LMD

        But he has sat in the corner and watch it happen.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Like Harry from True Lies

      • Bobarian LMD

        Yeah, more like the Mr. Creosote scene in The Meaning of Life.

      • Not Adahn

        Bah. Like he never staggered home drunk.

  13. Tundra

    Big White Dogs Save the World’s Smallest Penguin in Australia

    Awww. Good doggies.

    “For the school bus market, it’s been challenging for us.”

    Poor Sunset. None of his carefully crafted plans seem to work. Except that whole “impoverish the country to sow maximum chaos” thing.

    This Big Hush is flawless.

    Thanks, SF! All in all, a pretty cheery H&H/Lynx combo!

  14. Tonio

    drain it dry with her probing hollow tongue

    Gah! I wasn’t expecting that in your links post, but should have known better.

  15. DEG

    Those buses, Lauzzana said, have “a lot of downtime and performance issues” and aren’t “fully on the road,” despite the fact that they are “approximately five times more expensive than regular buses.” The infrastructure upgrades required to use the buses, meanwhile, were “originally estimated to be only about $50,000” but “ended up being more like $200,000,” according to Lauzzana.

    Good enough for government work.

    • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

      Will no one think of the contractors?

  16. Tundra

    Well, shit.

    RIP Tina.

    I always dug her.

    • The Other Kevin

      She was an icon. Not many more of those left.

      • rhywun

        Yup. I don’t own anything of hers or give it much thought but damn she was good at it.

    • KK the Porcine Pearl-Eater

      I fucking love “We Don’t Need Another Hero”

    • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

      Big wheel keep on turning.

  17. The Other Kevin

    Mrs. TOK is watching the Friends episode where there were “on a break”. I hate those episodes. Way too dramatic, and Ross is at his whiny worst.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      I hate that show.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Its on my wife’s rotation of shows she puts on when doing housework. I can tolerate it but to an extent. Monica’s exposition of erogenous zones was a good bit.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Also, a chilly Jennifer Aniston.

      • Ownbestenemy

        If you watch it closely, they were all chilly.

      • The Other Kevin

        It’s a nice mindless thing to watch before bed. We’ve seen them all, so falling asleep or turning if off halfway through is no big deal. Also nice to clear your mind after an intense movie or series.

      • Tundra

        My wife still watches them. Joey and Chandler’s bachelor scenes are funny as hell.

        Always hated Ross, but loved Jenny Aniston and her perky breasts.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Hmm..

        Jennifer Tilly or Jennifer Aniston….I think I will take the power of AND

      • DEG

        Correct.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        What about Jennifer Love Hewitt?

      • DEG

        She can join the fun too.

      • The Other Kevin

        That’s funny, we both hate Ross too. He’s annoying.

    • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

      It is one of the better ’90s sitcoms, post Seinfeld. Decent writing, well cast, went on too long, but, hey, if it is selling…

  18. DEG

    Will Sununu’s high approval ratings translate to presidential primary success?

    Survey says:

    However, being known as “moderate” and “bipartisan” could be a liability for Sununu in the Republican presidential primary. He was even described by many who approve of his performance in UNH’s poll as a “RINO.”

    “The very adjectives that voters attribute to Sununu, and like about him, will be the very things that make a presidential run so difficult for Sununu,” said UNH Political Science Professor Dante Scala. “Even in New Hampshire, there’s a large number of Republicans who approve of the job he’s doing as governor but don’t support him in a run for president, and those [adjectives] are the very reasons.”

    Although this poll published results from New Hampshire adults – not likely Republican voters – it is still the same image that Sununu has had to grapple with while mulling over his own Republican primary campaign. And how he fares in that contest has been less-than-promising based on early polling.

    Just last month, only 12 percent of likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire said they would vote for Sununu in the Republican primary in UNH’s Granite State Poll. In the same poll, only 35 percent of likely Republican primary voters wanted Sununu to run for president in 2024, down from the 42 percent who said so in January.

  19. Bobarian LMD

    “I’d fuck me.”

    Dear Sir,

    Fuck you very much for putting the image of Hillary doing the dance in front of the mirror while tucking her cloaca.

    You have ruined my entire Memorial Day Weekend, which I will now spend in a drunken fetal position.

    While humming Goodbye Horses.

    • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

      Does Winston’s mom charge extra for that?

      Asking for a friend.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Or like any drug, not being in the right headspace. They were most likely already depressed and it was amplified.

      • Swiss Servator

        Or merely identified, correct!

    • Pat

      The causality can certainly only run one way. It’s not like people who are depressed or bipolar might seek out drugs as a coping strategy.

      • Bobarian LMD

        *ding-ding-ding!

      • Swiss Servator

        “Self medicating? Never heard of it.”

      • juris imprudent

        You can’t do that, experts do not recommend it!

    • Urthona

      Imagine how depressed those people would be if they didn’t smoke weed.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Yeah I already ran my written questions through it. Add in either grammerly or proof-reader with knowledge of your field and it knocks them out of the park. Now when it comes time to interview…still gotta have the prep work in place.

    • Mojeaux

      Oops, too late.

  20. DEG

    Ruger earnings down, Sig Sauer expanding

    It’s a tale of two major New Hampshire employers in the same industry.

    While firearms manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc., reports a sharp drop in revenue and earnings, fellow gunmaker Sig Sauer is working on major expansions of its facilities on the Seacoast.

    • Sean

      Which one has a military contract?

      • Bobarian LMD

        Let’s see… Squad Weapon, M17, a sniper round, totaling up to roughly $7B.

        vice

        Last contract I can find is for some Iraqi police support in 2004?

        Winner? Sig.

    • Tundra

      “(W)e have been notified twice in the past five years by two of the nation’s largest banks, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, that they would not provide us with any credit because of the lawful products that we design, manufacture, and sell,” Killoy said.

      This is how they will eventually ban everything.

  21. Pat

    We need to stand up to morons like Mizzy

    By now, everyone’s seen one of those Mizzy videos. Mizzy, whose real name is Bacari-Bronze O’Garro, is an 18-year-old black kid in London whose ‘prank’ videos on TikTok show him entering strangers’ homes uninvited, asking random people in the street if they want to die, running off with an elderly lady’s dog and making fun of Orthodox Jews, including by trying to leapfrog over one of them. Pranks? I’m old enough to remember when these things were called crimes.

    His alleged juvenile delinquency has been making headlines over the past week. Ageing journalists – me included, I confess – are flummoxed by this social-media trend of apparent cruelty for kicks. Youths filming themselves, with their faces in full view, as they appear to do things that are against the law? It’s surreal. I know the young crave validation online, but I didn’t know they were prepared to go to such lengths for a virtual thumbs-up. Some of Mizzy’s ‘pranks’ strike me as a pretty sickening trade-off between decency and fame.

    And yet for me, the most unsettling thing about Mizzy’s videos is not the behaviour of the little scrote himself – it’s the nervy, panicked response of the people he seems to be harassing. Watch him walk into the plush home of a middle-class white family or get right up in a stranger’s face and growl: ‘Do you want to die?’ (The joke here is that he actually means dye. Do you want to dye your hair? So funny.) His targets seem bewildered. They erm and ahh and run off. I know it’s easy to feel bravado watching a vid on your laptop, to imagine how fearless you would have been in the same situation, but still – why hasn’t anyone clipped this runt round the ear?

    It’s not a facetious question. In fact, I think the timidity of Mizzy’s alleged victims is key to the Mizzy phenomenon. It seems to me that the corrosion of adult authority, the inability of grown-ups to tell scrawny kids with iPhones to fuck off if they know what’s good for them, acts as a green light to unruly behaviour.

    It’s like nobody watched A Clockwork Orange.

    • Count Potato

      A Clockwork Orange is the new black.

      • Tonio

        [golf clap]

    • Sensei

      With the ending that’s significantly different from the book.

      • Pat

        I’ve still yet to read the novel. I usually like to read the source material first, but come to think of it, I haven’t actually read any of the books on which any Kubrick film is based. When I first saw Clockwork as a teen I didn’t even know it was an adaptation.

      • Tundra

        Not even The Shining?

      • Pat

        Nope. Although from what I understand, it diverges substantially, and King is on record as absolutely despising Kubrick’s adaptation, so it probably wouldn’t spoil the book for me.

      • kinnath

        Nicholson was great.

        The movie itself was a horrendous adaption of the book.

        I seem to recall Kubrik saying he knew he was going to change the story before he even started.

      • Tundra

        I liked the book a lot better. The movie really was all Nicholson.

      • juris imprudent

        I thought the movie was great because for a long time you just think he’s going nuts, and it isn’t all supernatural shit. That part was stupid.

      • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

        King made his own version of it, which sucked donkey balls.

        I mean, come on, you think you are better than the greatest American film director?

      • Tonio

        Pat, Pat, Pat…

        Burgess (Clockwork Orange) is a serious fucking author who wrestles with theology, specifically good and evil. Kind of like GK Chesterton or CS Lewis. His book “Earthly Powers” highly recommended.

        Hasford’s collection of stories The Short Timers (FMJ) is based on his experiences in boot camp and as a military journalist in Vietnam. Private Joker is autobiographical.

        Stephen King hates, and I mean hates, the Kubrick adaptation of The Shining, but he’s a big, dumb poopyhead who doesn’t understand the auteur theory of film criticism.

      • R.J.

        If you want to see what Stephen King liked for The Shining, you can buy the shit ass non-Kubrick version on DVD at the Stanley Hotel and see some serious waste of film.

      • Pat

        His book “Earthly Powers” highly recommended.

        That’s another addition to my reading backlog.

        I became the gushing Kubrick fanboy that I remain to this day at the age of 11 when my dad showed me Dr. Strangelove, and my youthful enthusiasm for film outstripped my enthusiasm for non-academic reading at the time.

      • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

        I am going to say it; Kings books suck. They aren’t scary, they go on far too long, and work best as door stoppers.

        Plus, he is an also.

      • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

        And much better.

        The book pulls it’s punches, weakens the whole thing.

    • rhywun

      Because nobody wants to on the receiving end of the next Two-Minutes Hate for being mean to the wrong kid.

    • pistoffnick

      Fuck around and find out…

      oh. that’s right, no gunz of knives in Merry Old.

      • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

        You could, but you would get charged.

        This is the end result of the lefts totally misguided theories of law, punishment, and redemption. We will see if the country is past the breaking point, or whether it still has something down the road. I am not holding my breath.

    • The Gunslinger

      Nobody is safe. They can fuck off.

      Bravery is better than safety.

  22. Rebel Scum

    It’s practically the Fourth Reich.

    Ron DeSantis’s ultra-MAGA Florida isn’t safe for people of color, LGBTQ+ people, or even multi-billion dollar corporations.

    This term and “Great MAGA King” only play in favor of the MAGA voters.

    • Ownbestenemy

      The polling for that term must be good amongst their circles to keep using it.

      • juris imprudent

        Poling in circle jerks gives them exactly what they want.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Guaranteed to eat the biscuit at the end

      • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

        Hence the reaction to the poll on CNN. No one they know is doing poorly, no one THEY know isn’t down with trannies, and so on. It is like there is another world out there.

    • Swiss Servator

      Considering his most bitter opponent is THE MAGA himself, this is an odd label. Just lazy writing and thinking, I guess.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Its Clinton. She is prepping the battle space that Florida and the man who runs it has created a White Nationalist Paradise where roving old farts in golf carts chase down physically fit brown people and queers.

      • Swiss Servator

        “It is so dangerous that people keep moving there in droves!”

    • one true athena

      Best part of that is the “even multi-billion dollar corporations”!

  23. JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

    “the district’s environmental sustainability director”

    Nothing left to cut.

    • Sean

      Raise the debt ceiling!

    • Old Man With Candy

      Ironically, that’s what pays my salary.

    • R.J.

      That will not age well.

      • Ownbestenemy

        They won’t care. It will be sung from the tallest buildings as true

    • Pat

      It’s funny because David Duke has the exact same race essentialism and racial separatist views reflected in modern, enlightened academe, but is gauche enough to actually be honest about his motivations.

      • Count Potato

        Wasn’t he also a Democrat?

      • Ownbestenemy

        tHE pARTies! SWITched11111!!!!!!!!

      • Pat

        Had to look it up. Seems he was for a long while, then switched Republican for his only successful political campaign:

        Duke unsuccessfully stood as Democratic candidate for state legislature during the 1970s and 1980s, culminating in his campaign for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination. After failing to gain any traction within the Democratic Party, Duke left and successfully gained the presidential nomination of the minor Populist Party. In December 1988, he became a Republican and claimed to have become a born-again Christian, while nominally renouncing antisemitism and racism.[7] He soon won his only elected office, a seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives. He then ran unsuccessful but competitive campaigns for several more offices, including United States Senate in 1990 and Governor of Louisiana in 1991.

      • juris imprudent

        It’s actually kinda funny, how probably half the population wouldn’t have a clue who he was.

      • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

        Dems are the party of the olds.

  24. Tonio

    GLIBS WEBSITE UPGRADE POSTPONED: The special candles we need for the ritual did not arrive as promised, so the website upgrade has been postponed. Stay tuned for an announcement and try to work around any glitches.

    • R.J.

      *Takes off gimp mask
      *Puts lid back on 55 gallon drum of lube

  25. UnCivilServant

    I finally decided to try a Bahn Mi today. It was fine. I know the french bread is traditional, but it really did drag the whole thing down. And this place should have chopped up the herbs. having four inch long stems that chew poorly in the midst of a sandwich really didn’t help.

    Other than that, there were no issues.

    • Not Adahn

      It was fine.

      On the one hand, it’s not surprising NY could fuck up a banh mi.

      OTOH, this is UnCiv’s review I’m reading.

  26. Rebel Scum

    Those dastardly Republicans won’t roll over and give us everything we want.

    More of the same — angry, tiresome talking points from KJP about the debt limit negotiations, pinning 100% of the blame on Republicans: “This is a manufactured crisis, plain and simple…That’s what we’ve been dealing with…Just listen to members of the House Freedom Caucus.”

    This….sounds like the WH is backing away from any compromise with Republicans & demanding they get all that they want: Republicans “put forth an extreme package of devastating cuts that would slash…education, law enforcement, food assistance, the list goes on & on & on & on.”

    Because those things are in the legitimate purview of the federal government…

    • juris imprudent

      Compromise has always meant give us everything we want. Was there some confusion about that?

      • The Other Kevin

        When they win they have a mandate and should get what they want. When they lose Republicans should reach across the aisle and give them what they want. They are children.

    • Pat

      Republicans “put forth an extreme package of devastating cuts that would slash…education, law enforcement, food assistance, the list goes on & on & on & on.”

      You know, human brains are said by self-referential experts to be pattern-recognition machines, and yet “firemen first” still works…

  27. Ownbestenemy

    Two job postings in Kentucky. Gonna submit both of them. One in Louisville and the other in Hebron. Lots of in-laws in the area, cheap cost of living and land to be had in some places.

    • Tundra

      Good luck!

      • Ownbestenemy

        Thanks! Already have a bid out for a travelin job, but these are closer to where I want to be.

      • Bobarian LMD

        All other things being equal, I’d lean towards Hebron. Louisville is getting kinda sketchy these days.

    • Tonio

      Buona fortuna.

    • DEG

      Good luck!

    • Pat

      Best of luck

    • Mojeaux

      Good luck!

    • whiz

      Not to mention a Representative and Senator you can actually feel good voting for.

      Good luck!

      • Drake

        And maybe Cocaine Mitch retires some day.

    • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

      Good luck, OBE!

      And you too, Mojo.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    86%!

    Literally dozens.

  29. Certified Public Asshat

    How solar farms took over the California desert: ‘An oasis has become a dead sea’

    Desert plants are some of the oldest carbon-capturers around: Mojave yuccas can be up to 2,500 years old, while the humble creosote bush can live for over 10,000 years. These plants also sequester carbon in the form of glomalin, a protein secreted around the fungal threads connected to the plants’ roots, thought to store a third of the world’s soil carbon. “By digging these plants up,” says Kobaly, “we are removing the most efficient carbon sequestration units on the planet – and releasing millennia of stored carbon back into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, the solar panels we are replacing them with have a lifespan of around 25 years.”

    But like solar feels good, you know?

    • hayeksplosives

      Same thing happening to the part of the Mojave in Nevada where i used to live. They are uprooting trees, relocating the endangered desert tortoise (90% of them die after transplant; they don’t like being removed from their territory), and, oft overlooked, they are “breaking the crust”, the upper layer of the desert that helps keep the dust from blowing all over the place. The dust storms and dirt devils in Pahrump are getting epic. And not in a good way.

      Fuck large-scale solar. You want it on your roof? Fine–a great idea for many and it doesn’t mess with the desert more than the original house build did.

      Need moar nuke plants.

  30. juris imprudent

    If you go back and look at federal spending 2017-19, you would expect we’d be in the $5.1-5.2T range. It was that nearly $2T spike in 2020 that now seems to be completely normalized and internalized as vital by the Democrats.

    • Pat

      Through the magic of baseline budgeting, there is no such thing as a temporary increase in spending.

    • Bobarian LMD

      Budget theme song

      Democrats singing lead with Repubs doing the harmony.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Put spending back to where it was 4-5 years ago? What kind of monster are you?

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      That’s a unit of measure you’re not likely to see in the news, but you should.

      • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

        Fatter than Lizzo’s cooter?

    • kinnath

      Digging this cover

    • Tundra

      Oh, now that’s the good stuff. Thanks, KS!

  31. Mojeaux

    Gold Shaw Farm uses Maremmas. I watch their videos. I know Pie does too. Or did.

    My chat with HR at the company I applied to was the standard “If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?” interview style questions. “What was a challenge you faced…” “When you screwed up, what happened/how you fixed it…” “How well do you work on a team remotely…” “What are you most proud of in your past working…” OMG please save me from these questions. Of course I’m going to put my best foot forward. Nobody’s going to tell you they secretly think they pretty much suck.

    • Pat

      Nobody’s going to tell you they secretly think they pretty much suck.

      The Costanza gambit

  32. Shpip

    Remember Amanda Gorman? The adorable token trotted out to recite her “poem” at Dopey Joe’s swearing-in a couple of years ago? Well, apparently that fascist Ron DeathSatan has fascistly banned a book of her poems from a south Florida school, fascist-natsee-style. Poor Amanda is gutted, of course, that elementary-age readers are BANNED from reading her insights on the human condition.

    The media and the usual suspects on Twitter all repeated this story relentlessly. The only problem? That’s not what happened.

    • Pat

      A school book ban is any action taken against a book that leaves access to a book restricted or diminished. This decision of moving my book from its original place, taken after one parent complained, diminishes the access elementary schoolers would have previously had to my poem.…

      The dark night of fascism in this country will not have ended until every kindergarten in the nation has access to the full catalog of SugarFree.

      • R C Dean

        “A school book ban is any action taken against a book that leaves access to a book restricted or diminished. “

        You mean, if a school choosing one of several books on offer, its banning the ones it didn’t buy?

    • juris imprudent

      Pepperidge Farms remembers when they boasted about being the reality-based community.

  33. Pat

    The neutering of Monty Python

    No one expects the Spanish Inquisition, but everyone surely expected this. Comedian John Cleese revealed last week that he has been forced to cut a gag about a man who wants babies from an upcoming stage revival of Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

    When Life of Brian first appeared on Britain’s cinema screens in November 1979, it was the funniest film I had ever seen in the cinema. Back then, there was still a Christian church capable of a low, meaningful growl at this evidently facetious treatment of its founding credo. Yet the artistic integrity, the long serpentine backbone of Python, held firm.

    A lot has changed since then. According to Cleese, the ‘Loretta’ scene, in which a male member of the People’s Front of Judea demands his right to have babies, raised eyebrows at a read-through in New York last year. ‘We love the script, but you can’t do that stuff about Loretta nowadays’, the Americans told Cleese. Here we see how an religious diktat, incomparably more impactful than anything from the church of the 1970s, has forced Cleese and Co to expunge one of Life of Brian’s most beloved moments.

    In 1979, self-proclaimed defender of the faith Malcolm Muggeridge and the then Bishop of Southwark appeared on a late-night chat show to defend the Gospel against Life of Brian. They challenged John Cleese and Michael Palin for what they saw as the film’s tiresome, wanton, schoolboy vandalism of their faith. I remember watching it at the time. I was 14 and knew nothing of Muggeridge’s genuinely heroic stand against Stalinism, or rather against Fleet Street’s reluctance to address its evils. I was simply impatient with these old men and their indignantly quivering jowls. Get out of the way, I thought, you’ve had your day. We’re the young generation, and we’ve got something to say. Now I see that they were merely the Horatiuses at their own bridge, just as I am at mine now. One need only wait. The world rolls, and sooner or later you find it at your door.

    That trans is the new religion has become a cliché. But it will rarely be illustrated more vividly than here, as its scowl humbles a jest that once stood up to Rome and Canterbury combined.

    • juris imprudent

      Marvel that this is now too transgressive while the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are heroic figures.

  34. Penguin

    Mow-jo

  35. Tundra

    The DeSantis/Elon thing isn’t going well. Apparently we’ve crashed the internet.

    • Penguin

      NO, that was you Tundra, with your ‘mountains look like boobies’ talk. Shame

      • Tundra

        Well, they DO!

      • Penguin

        Relevance is not a defense / FEDGOV

  36. Pat

    Capitol rioter Richard Barnett, pictured in Pelosi’s office, sentenced to 4.5 years

    May 24 (UPI) — An Arkansas man photographed in Nancy Pelosi’s office, where he lounged with his foot on a desk during the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison.

    Richard “Bigo” Barnett, who was found guilty earlier this year on eight counts for his role in the attack, appeared Wednesday afternoon before Judge Christopher Cooper of the U.S. District court for the District of Columbia, one day after the judge denied Barnett’s motions for acquittal or a new trial.

    Cooper handed down a sentence of 54 months, despite requests by federal prosecutors for a seven-year prison term after Barnett admitted he entered the Capitol carrying a 950,000-volt stun gun and an American flag.

  37. Tundra

    What a clusterfuck. And Ron is so, so boring.

    I hate to say it, but Two-Scoops is gonna destroy him in the primaries.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      He can use boring to his advantage. “I may not be as entertaining as my opponent, but I’ve got experience enacting my policies. In government it’s not enough to tweet something out. You need to execute, and that might seem boring. But it’s necessary if you want real results.”

      • grrizzly

        DeSantis is too tainted by the support he receives from the GOP establishment.

      • Urthona

        Trump receives way more support from the GOP establishment.

      • Urthona

        Trump is interesting after the fact because he is bound to say something crazy that can be laughed at and shared.

        Actually listening to him speak though, I can’t get through 15 seconds.

      • juris imprudent

        I’d love for DeSantis to point out the things Trump could’ve done, if he had any understanding at all about how to run the govt.

      • Urthona

        Does DeSantis even know about taking the guns first?

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        Agreed. He can also run on a return to normalcy. Of course the Dems and the media will try to paint him as Hitler. I think a lot of people think Trump’s policies are more normal, but the man himself brings too much drama. If I were running the campaign, that’s the approach I would take. But then my batting average for political predictions is below the Mendoza Line, so what do I know.

    • Urthona

      I’ll vote for Ron. Probably.

      • R.J.

        Me too. Unless somehow, by magic, Kennedy gets the nomination from the Dems.

      • Old Man With Candy

        After seeing the recent interview with Stossel (and Stossel is GREAT at interviews like this), I’m convinced I couldn’t possibly vote for him. I honestly knew little about him. but Stossel asked good questions, let him talk, and I came away convinced. Big nope.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        How so?

      • Urthona

        See for me it’s just about picking the least overt communist with a chance to win. I’m sure he has quite a few issues.

      • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

        Yeah, I don’t expect to agree with a candidate 100%. There are some red lines that would likely prevent me from voting for a candidate even if I mostly agree with him. But then I have to consider the competition too, which might make those red lines a little less visible. Of course, being in CA, my vote isn’t likely to matter anyway, so I can afford to have brighter red lines.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Drug warrior (even dropped in the stupid shit about “they’re making fentanyl candy to give to kids!”), immigration warrior, war warrior, no retreat on the security state, and a LOT of evasion. His grinning “aw shucks, it was just a way of getting attention” when confronted with his Trump sycophancy was nauseating. Team L had better fucking run a better choice than Doctor Jo.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Can he define a leppo?

      • Penguin

        Here’s a good song for Midwesterners of a certain age: Never Been Any Reason

        Also, anyone else.

    • R C Dean

      I dunno. Trump has a couple of Achilles’ heels:

      (1) His handling of the pandemic.

      (2) The massive deficits “he” ran – I know, Congress is nominally in control of spending, but Trump never even tried for meaningful budget cuts, and the trillion dollar stimulus packages he actively supported are now baseline spending (slowly) destroying the economy.

      • Urthona

        Those aren’t even his biggest problem anyway.

        His biggest problem is that if he wins the nomination Republicans are all but guaranteed to lose again.

        Independents hate him now more than any candidate in 100 years and show no sign of budging whatsoever.

      • Old Man With Candy

        If he doesn’t win the nomination, Team Red is still guaranteed to lose. Team Blue doesn’t need a majority, just a plurality.

      • Urthona

        I don’t know about that.

    • rhywun

      I could go for a few years of boring.

      • Urthona

        I mean pretty much all politicians are. Biden is like watching paint dry.

        It’s funny because public speaking feels like their main job.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Maybe but I hope DS beats Trump like a drum. Trump cheesed it on Covid, still pushes the vax like a shill bitch, sold the January 6thers down the river, hired some of the worst people in the history of fucking ever, and got owned by the swamp in a way that actually empowered them. DeSantis can beat Biden, Trump can’t and much more of the current situation and we really are screwed. He’s a bit of a snooze to listen to but that’s kind of a plus at this point.

      • Urthona

        Agreed with all.

        Trump has cost Republicans 3 elections in a row and big government is more sinister and terrifying than ever.

        I can actually name a few good things that Trump has done but literally anyone else with the slightest inkling of liberty and chance to win would be a preference for me now.

        Beggars can’t be choosers.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I prefer Trump over any of the Dems and seeing him get revenge on these assholes by getting elected again would be one of the best things ever but I’m also a realist. DeSantis has actually taken it to the left in a way I think Trump would have been too timid to do.

      • R.J.

        Heh. Dershowitz already posted “Can DeSantis beat Trump and Biden?” On his podcast. I will try to listen in a bit.

      • Mojeaux

        Trump has cost Republicans 3 elections in a row

        Trump only cares about one thing: Trump, and how he feels at any given moment, and he’s got mood swings that would embarrass a perimenopausal Karen.

  38. R C Dean

    Swampy Marsh and his dog Oddball. What is this, a children’s movie?

    • R.J.

      And just like that, the day got so much better.

    • Count Potato

      LOLOLOLOLOL

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      So what is DeSantis’ position on hiker rape?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      -If not shapely asses then what?
      Dunno, they got a cameltoe section? Those are always fun.