The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Rule 5 Sunday: Late Night With Daisy Dukes

Posted on | March 23, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Thanks to @kbdabear.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

EBL: Saturday Night Girls With Guns, “The Happening”, Let’s Make Pizza, Rickshaw Girls, Irish Women (1967), Maureen O’Hara, The Madison, and MAGA Ides of March

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Rule 5 Saturday – Claire Muzic, Fish Pic Friday- Summer Mae, Thursday Tanlines, The Wednesday Wetness, Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Blue Catfish Too Good For Dog Food, Did Tucker Set Up The Ayatollahs? The Monday Morning Stimulus, and Palm Sunday

BACON TIME: Rule Five Red Hot

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Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: On An Even Keel

Posted on | March 23, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

If you’re the sort of person who prays for others when they’re facing the Reflector Heads, please do so for Fritz, who blogs at A View For The Beach. He has been rendered humorless. 
We started the week going 2-1 against Pete’s Brewers and ended it losing two out of three to the Royals, who have a tough rotation. So we’re still in second place in our division at 63-67, seven games behind the Twins and five ahead of the Brewers. I can’t remember offhand how Pete has the playoff brackets set up, but since there are two teams in the other division with better records, there’s a chance I’ll miss the playoffs – but I’ll have plenty of keepers for next year and some early draft picks to mend the holes in our pitching.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.
FMJRA 2.0: Holding Our Own
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

Rule Five Sunday: Ersatz Gingermageddon
A View From The Beach
EBL

 

In The Mailbox: 03.16.26
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 03.17.26
A View From The Beach
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 03.18.26
EBL
357 Magnum

Gavin Newsom’s ‘Cougar Crossing’ Is the Perfect Symbol of Californication
EBL
357 Magnum

In The Mailbox: 03.19.26
EBL
357 Magnum

There Is a Reason Why Taboos Exist
EBL

In The Mailbox: 03.20.26
EBL
357 Magnum

Thanks to everyone for all the links!

 

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Category: FMJRA Award

Scandal-Plagued Former FBI Chief Robert Mueller Dies in Disagrace at Age 81

Posted on | March 22, 2026 | No Comments

Robert Mueller, tainted by controversy.

De mortuis nil nisi bonum is always wise policy, which Democrats never follow whenever one of their enemies die. Democrats hate without apology, but become indignant if Republicans return the favor.

Readers might notice that the headline of this obituary is perhaps not a model of journalistic objectivity, but that’s the whole point. You see, I spent a decade at the Washington Times, which gave me a chance to study how our liberal competitor, the Washington Post, always slanted everything, including obituaries. Liberal journalists find ways to sneak in tendentious words and phrases like controversial and scandal-plagued when writing about their chosen enemies, and I think this is as good an occasion as any to repay the favor in the case of Bob Mueller.

It is worth pointing out that, prior to 2017, few liberals would have thought of Mueller as a hero. He had a long career as a federal prosecutor before becoming Assistant Attorney General in the first Bush administration, and was subsequent chosen in 2001 by Bush the Younger to be FBI Director. His reputation was as a conservative Republican, and he remained in the job until 2013, when Obama named James Comey as his successor. Four years later, after Trump had fired Comey (after learning that the FBI had illegally spied on his campaign), Attorney General Bill Barr recused himself from the case and appointed Mueller as special counsel, tasked with investigating the whole matter of “Russian collusion.” Mueller was 73 years old at the time and appears to have functioned as a figurehead for a witch-hunt conducted by his underlings.

For nearly two years, the Mueller investigation dragged on, ruining the lives of various Trump allies entangled in the case, as the witch-hunters tried to bring pressure on them to implicate Trump in something — anything — illegal. All that while, the talking heads on MSNBC were gleefully cheerleading Mueller, telling their Trump-hating audiences that “the walls are closing in” on the Bad Orange Man. Ultimately, however, these sadistic fantasies were disappointed: Mueller’s final report failed to find any evidence of “collusion” between the Russians and the Trump campaign. It was all a hoax from start to finish. And when Mueller was called to testify before Congress, it became apparent that he was well down the path to becoming completely senile.

It is an objective fact that Mueller was disgraced by his participation in the “Russian collusion” witch-hunt. However, because his phony investigation was useful to Democrats — it disrupted Trump’s first term and arguably helped Democrats win control of Congress in the 2018 midterm elections — all the usual suspects in journalism are now obligated to praise him as a hero. They get paid to lie.

As bad as the “Russian collusion” witch-hunt was, however, it perhaps wasn’t the worst stain on Mueller’s record. As FBI director, Mueller authorized the Bureau to use informants to organize neo-Nazi rallies:

In 2007, Orlando residents were furious to discover that an FBI informant had organized a neo-Nazi rally through one of the city’s mostly black neighborhoods a year earlier.
“To come into a predominantly black community, which could have resulted in great harm to the black community? I would hate to be part of a game,” Orlando City Councilwoman Daisy Lynum said at the time, calling for a “full-scale investigation” into the matter.
However, an FBI agent testified that his informant participated in the event, but didn’t organize it. The city’s uproar passed without a public investigation, full-scale or otherwise — until now.
Thanks to a trove of previously unpublicized law enforcement records and interviews with several players involved, Headline USA can reveal that the Orlando neo-Nazi rally was indeed organized by the FBI. The Orlando event also seems to have been part of a larger program to hold Nazi rallies across the country. And according to FBI records, the bureau sponsored those events despite knowing they led to an increase in the number of card-carrying Nazis in America. . . .

You can read the rest of that, and also read Part II of Ken Silva’s investigative report on this shady episode from Mueller’s career.



 

Category: Corruption, Crime, Media Bias, Scandal

D.E.I. + A.I. = O.M.G.!

Posted on | March 22, 2026 | No Comments

Clayton County prosecutor Deborah Leslie

One of my sons is a lawyer, and the youngest is currently a first-year law student, and the stories they tell me about the use of AI (artificial intelligence) by both law students and practicing lawyers are disturbing. You may think “fake news” is bad, but fake law is much worse. Last year, I wrote about Stanford Professor Jeff Hancock who calls himself a “misinformation expert,” who was enlisted as an expert witness by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in a case about so-called “deep fake” videos. Hancock was disqualified after his AI fakery was discovered:

Attorney General Ellison concedes that Professor Hancock included citations to two non-existent academic articles and incorrectly cited the authors of a third article. Professor Hancock admits that he used GPT-4o to assist him in drafting his declaration but, in reviewing the declaration, failed to discern that GPT-4o generated fake citations to academic articles.
The irony. Professor Hancock, a credentialed expert on the dangers of AI and misinformation, has fallen victim to the siren call of relying too heavily on AI — in a case that revolves around the dangers of AI, no less.

What happens, of course, is that people get lazy, relying on computer programs to do their work for them. And this is causing all kind of problems in education, as well as in the actual practice of law. If you’re a lawyer using AI to help write your briefs, it’s important to double-check the results because AI programs are known to “hallucinate” fictitious cases sometimes — and it’s a disaster if you get caught using those:

There was turmoil in a Georgia courtroom on Wednesday as AI-generated deficiencies in the state’s legal filings threatened to upend proceedings in an appeal lodged by a woman convicted of murdering an older man in a citizen’s arrest gone horribly wrong.
In December 2023, Hannah Payne, 25, was convicted on two counts of felony murder, three counts of possession of a weapon during a crime, and one count each of malice murder, aggravated assault, and false imprisonment over the May 2019 death of Kenneth Herring, 62.
The defendant was subsequently sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after serving at least 43 years behind bars. . . .

Permit me to interrupt the narrative here to explain to anyone unfamiliar with Georgia: Clayton County is a Southside suburb of Atlanta. The population is 69% black and only 9% white. Needless to say, Clayton County is heavily Democratic. In 2024, Kamala Harris got 84% of the vote in the county, which is home to the Atlanta airport. And, in regard to this case, it is important to note that Hannah Payne is white, while the man she was convicted of murdering is black. Back to the narrative:

Payne quickly appealed her sentence and conviction citing ineffective assistance of counsel. After losing her motion for a new trial in late summer 2025, the appellate effort made its way before the Georgia Supreme Court this week.
During oral arguments, one of the justices noted that certain components of legal filings from the lower court did not appear to have legal justification.
“In reviewing the trial court’s order denying the motion for new trial, there are at least five citations to cases that don’t exist, and there’s at least five more citations to cases that do not support the proposition for which they’re cited, including three quotations that don’t exist,” Chief Justice Nels S.D. Peterson said.
An attorney for the state denied knowledge of the fabricated citations.
“I did prepare an order, that order was revised,” Deborah Leslie, representing the Clayton County District Attorney’s Office, said.
This answer received a quick riposte.
“Those nonexistent cases were cited in your initial brief opposing the motion for new trial,” the justice told the prosecutor.
To which Leslie replied: “Your Honor, I’m not aware of that, but I would be glad to research and provide the court with a supplement.”

Keep in mind that this is a high-profile murder case in Georgia, a case with an obvious racial angle in a state with a long history of difficult race relations, being argued in front of the state supreme court, and the D.A.’s office has just been caught using fake citations in its motion, and the prosecutor’s response is, “Your Honor, I’m not aware of that.” Good Lord!

Everybody on X immediately started shouting “DEI!” Far be it from me to accuse others of racism — “RAAAAACISM!” — but just because the lawyer is black doesn’t mean she’s a DEI hire, and plenty of white lawyers have similarly been caught using fake citations generated by AI.

While I was not able to locate background information on Deborah Leslie, I was able to find an organizational chart for the Clayton County District Attorney’s office, which shows that Leslie’s boss is Chief Assistant District Attorney Zina Pitts. who has been a lawyer in Georgia for the past 25 years. The fact that Pitts and Leslie are both black women, as is District Attorney Tasha Mosley, is not the result of “DEI” policy, it just reflects the demographics (and political leanings) of Clayton County.

Tasha Mosley was appointed DA of Clayton County in 2019 by Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. She is an alumna of SMU, got her law degree at John Marshall Law School in Atlanta, and has been practicing in Georgia for 30 years. She has been reelected to the office since her appointment seven years ago, and while I have no interest in praising her, this current brouhaha is the first time the Clayton County DA’s office has bungled anything so badly as to attract nationwide attention.

Let’s talk about the facts of the case:

On May 7, 2019, Payne and a semi-truck had a green light when Herring breezed through a red light in his Dodge Dakota pickup truck, causing a minor crash with the semi-truck. Testimony at an earlier hearing suggested that Herring stayed at the scene of the crash for roughly 15 to 20 minutes before ultimately getting back in his truck and driving away.
Payne, who was not involved in the initial crash, pulled over and called 911, she testified on Monday.
A witness — a state corrections officer with medic training — also saw the crash and came up to speak to Herring, a detective previously testified. Based on his training, the witness suggested Herring was having a medical emergency — a diabetic shock or something of that nature. For example, Herring was disoriented, displayed red-orange eyes, and had walked around his truck several times.
But Payne thought Herring was drunk — toxicology tests would later show Herring had no drugs or alcohol in his system.
“He’s OK, but he’s definitely inebriated,” the officer said at one point, according to Payne. This alleged claim prompted her and the semi-truck driver to ask at the same time: “Do you mean he’s drunk?”
After Herring left the initial crash site, however, Payne had settled on the idea that he was drunk. She got back into her Jeep and pursued Herring despite being told at least once by 911 not to do so.
“I saw him stopped in the turning lane, so I turned as well,” Payne testified. “When I stopped, I was under the impression, with having 911 on the phone, that I could be a messenger.”
Payne said she initially only intended to get the driver’s license plate information, which she said the 911 dispatcher had asked of her.
Prosecutors argued the audio from the 911 call shows the dispatcher was adamant that Payne not pursue Herring. The audio is also clear the defendant was adamant she was going to go after him.
“He is drunk. I’m not,” Payne told the dispatcher before the fatal confrontation. “I’m sorry, but I’m here to tell you I’m not not going to follow him because he is going to cause an accident.”
After the two shouted at one another for a few moments, Herring reached out of his truck and grabbed her, Payne testified on Monday. She claimed he ripped her shirt with the grab and eventually “mashed the gas,” briefly dragging her forward with his car.
Payne said she never stopped trying to pull away from Herring and eventually announced that she had a gun to try and get her alleged assailant to let her go. That’s when Payne admittedly drew the gun.
“I pulled it out and immediately started trying to just continue to push against the door with it — like push it away from him” she testified. Then, she said: “He grabbed my hand with the gun in it.”
All the while, the defendant said, she screamed for Herring to stop.
“As he’s pulling it is when it — the trigger went off,” she testified. “After it went off, my entire body kind of fell backwards.”
The state, on the other hand, proved during the trial, relying on witness testimony and recordings, that Payne actually cut Herring off with her car, then jumped out and “very aggressively” ran up to Herring’s car, cursed at him, immediately started punching the confused man through his window, took out her gun, threatened to shoot him twice, and “immediately” shot him.

The facts are disputed, but what is clear is that Payne believed that Herring, who ran a red light causing an accident and then left the scene of the accident, was a danger to other motorists. She claims she fired in self-defense during a struggle over the gun. But even if the jury didn’t buy that explanation, Georgia law still recognizes the right to use deadly violence in defense of others. Payne’s appeal argues that her defense attorney failed to get the court to instruct the jury properly on that, as well as on Georgia’s “citizen’s arrest” statute, which was still in effect in 2019, although it was repealed in 2021 after the Ahmaud Arbery case.

It’s worth noting that the NAACP called upon its supporters to “pack the courtroom” for Payne’s sentencing hearing.

Did Hannah Payne receive a fair trial? Considering the basic demographic and political facts about Clayton County, is it possible that any white defendant in such a situation — claiming self-defense in an interaction with a black person — could receive a fair trial?

Perhaps others are not concerned about this, and certainly I would not “play the race card” were it not for the fact that the NAACP already played it. Let the authorities in Clayton County reflect on what it might mean to their community if it were nationally regarded as a “no-go zone” for white people (as many locals already do). Now add to that the embarrassment of the District Attorney’s office using non-existent citations in an appeal of the case, and it’s not a good look for Clayton County. The state Supreme Court is not very happy.



 

Category: Crime, Georgia, Racism

In The Mailbox: 03.20.26

Posted on | March 21, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Usual weekend deadlines for the usual weekend posts.
Wow, an entire week without skipped/compacted posts.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Do We Need More AI in Our Life? also Self-Defense Is Catching on in Chicago
Director Blue: Did Trump Really Just Kneecap Lloyd’s of London?,  
EBL: Giant Calimari, Italian Hard Cheeses, Chuck Norris RIP, “The Happening”, and Saint Joseph Pasta
Twitchy: Variety’s Chuck Norris Headline Gets Ratioed To The Moon, “People Are Starting To Notice”, and MN DFL Ob-Gyn’s Cringe Voter ID Dunk Fails Hard 
Louder With Crowder: New report exposes insane amount of non-citizens collecting welfare, highlights the three worst offenders, Shocking report shows NYC spends more per homeless person than the average NYer MAKES PER YEAR, Hasan Piker’s Cuba Lies Debunked Feat. Real Cuban, Spanglish Generation, Democrats vote in near unison AGAINST deporting illegals who viciously attack dogs, and Lame NY governor steals lame CA governor’s social media strategy to start beef with Barstool Sports and fails
Vox Popoli: That’s How Bad, VDH Predicts a US Victory, and Can it Get Worse?
According To Hoyt: Go Pick On Someone Your Own Size, People Are Not Widgets, Use Your Power For Good, This Is Not A Post, and Telling us it’s raining
Monster Hunter Nation: Monster Hunter Files Vol 2
Upstream Reviews: Cyberpub

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Greatness: Biden Era Intel Assessment Targeted White Moms and Homemakers as Potential Domestic Terrorists, Las Vegas Cops Defy Judge’s Order, Refuse to Release Violent Repeat Offender, Obama’s Presidential Center Seeking 100 Unpaid Volunteers to Staff Lavish Facility, MAGA Ramps Up Pressure on Trump to Dump Cornyn, and Surf, Turf, and Another Media Meltdown
BattleSwarm: LinkSwarm For March 20
Behind The Black: Space Force shifts another ULA Vulcan launch to SpaceX, The FCC’s agenda at its next meeting includes an item for “Weird Space Stuff”, Ursa Major test flies a new liquid-fueled missile engine for Air Force, Kratos wins $446 million contract to build/operate ground system for Space Force satellite constellation, and Blue Origin files FCC application for its own 51,600 data center satellite constellation
Cafe Hayek: More on How Excess Capacity = Inadequate Capacity
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Dana Loesch: Joe Kent Was Under Investigation For Leaking Months Before He Resigned 
Don Surber: Friends in need, not NATO
First Street Journal: You in a heap o’ trouble, boys!
The Geller Report: US, Japan Announce $73 Billion New Business Projects Including $40 Billion Nuclear Power Project, NYC’s First Lady Deletes Old X Account as Posts Glorifying Islamic Terrorists, Jew & America Hatred Reemerge, BOMBSHELL STUDY  – Myocarditis AND Pericarditis ONLY Occurred in Children Who Got COVID mRNA vaccination, Iranian Regime Leaders’ Kids Have Been Living in Luxury in America, and Somaliland Drops Receipts That Ilhan Omar Married Her Brother
Hollywood In Toto: Hollywood Takes Aim at ICE with HBO Max’s Huge Hit, also, White Guilt Slams BLM as Epic Grift
Legal Insurrection: Democrats Block ‘Women’s History Museum’ Bill Because It Excludes Men, Congress Proposes ‘PASTEUR Act’ as ‘Superbugs’ Spread and Antibiotic Resistance Increases, Education Secretary McMahon Threatens SJSU Federal Funding for Title IX Violations, Newly Renovated Church at Marquette University Vandalized, and Iran’s IRGC Spokesman, Who Threatened Trump, Killed in Israeli Strike
Outkick: March Madness? More Like Legal Madness, I Asked WNBA Star Kelsey Plum’s AI Twin About ‘Pay Us What You Owe Us’, Pittsburgh Is Closing Down Schools The Week Of NFL Draft, Whatever Happened To Former Basketball Star And Far-Left Nutjob Rex Chapman? and Sydney Sweeney Teases New Lingerie With A Perfectly Placed Rose, MLB Players Are Shrinking & RIP Chuck Norris!
Power Line: Blue Flight Continues Apace, Another one bites the dust, Family guy, and Spring can really hang you up the most
Racket News: March Media Madness – Determining America’s Worst Podcaster, Can Your Pension/Retirement Money Get Lost in the Bermuda Triangle?
Shark Tank: Wasserman-Schultz Decries Trump’s “Unacceptable” Actions In Iran
The Political Hat: Firing Line Friday: Should Labor Power Be Reduced?
This Ain’t Hell: Valor Friday, With friends like these, Chuck Norris, USAF vet, dies, and Bringing the BRRRRRRRT to the Persian Gulf
Transterrestrial Musings: Project Hail Mary, also, The Imperial Order Is Over
Victory Girls: Secret Service Suspends Butler Agent Again, Just Fire Her Already
Watts Up With That: Utilities Efforts Would Undermine President Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge, Russian Oil Poised To Flood World Markets As Trump Admin Lifts Sanctions, AEP Wants North Sea Oil & Gas Now, Energy Dominance 2.0: Permian Basin Edition, and The “Spiral of Silence” is Concealing Majority Support for Climate Action
The Federalist: If ‘Temporary Refugees’ Aren’t Removed Now, They Never Will Be, Gen Z Doesn’t Have Enough Cultural Identity To Care About The Oscars, Democrats Love Gun Control And Violent Criminals Because Both Can Punish You, CNN Continues Lying About Child In ‘Bunny Hat’ Who Was ‘Detained’ By ICE, and Memo To Senate – Saving America’s Elections Is Your No. 1 Job Right Now
Mark Steyn: As the World Burns

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Category: Linkagery

There Is a Reason Why Taboos Exist

Posted on | March 20, 2026 | No Comments

A ‘celebrity,’ by 21st-century standards

You are an intelligent, responsible adult, which is why you’ve never heard of Taylor Frankie Paul. Until Thursday, I hadn’t heard of her either because — as an intelligent, responsible adult — I pay zero attention to “reality TV.” But before getting to her recent failed attempt to break out from that entertainment ghetto, let’s start at the beginning: By 2022, when she was 28, Taylor Frankie Paul had accumulated a massive following on TikTok. She was a married mother of three, and a lot of her content featured her and her husband, Tate Paul, doing silly stunts, sometimes with their two young children. Then in mid-2022, Taylor “went viral” with a video announcing that she would be getting divorced. Her “life was falling apart,” she said and then she dropped the bomb: The breakup was because she and her husband (and many of their friends in their Utah community, allegedly) were involved in “swinging.”

Don’t know who needs to hear this, but . . . BAD IDEA!

Because I am someone who can be trusted to keep a secret, I can’t tell you the stories about people I know who tried the so-called “polyamorous” lifestyle and thereby wrecked their lives, but I assure you that I have never once heard of anything good resulting from aforesaid lifestyle.

In general, every type of kinky behavior that could be characterized as sexual fantasy is a bad idea. We see people destroy their lives this way quite frequently, as for example, the tragic saga of Fred “Bubba” Copeland a/k/a “Brittni Summerlin.” Disapproval of such behavior is sometimes referred to as a “taboo,” which has overtones of superstition, as if the forbidden nature of certain sexual practices is the result of irrational prejudice. But if you study the situation with an eye to long-term happiness, these taboos are entirely rational.

Suppose that you’re a guy bored with marital monogamy, and your particular fantasy is a ménage à trois. So there’s a reasonably attractive and friendly young woman who lives in your trailer park, and you spring the idea on your wife: Y’all get together for some fun, just to “spice thing up” a bit. Congratulations — your wife is agreeable, so you do the threesome, and it’s so awesome that you begin doing it regularly. You, your wife and the good-looking trailer park neighbor, having a great time. And then one day, you get off work early and show up at your trailer to discover that your wife and the good-looking neighbor lady have decided they like the twosome better than the threesome, and your involvement is no longer necessary to the fun. You’re going to lose everything, including your trailer, because your soon-to-be-ex-wife is now a full-blown lesbian. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a true story, which I can share without violating my code because I did not personally know the people involved and heard this tale second-hand from a trusted source.

Whenever I tell that story, the listener will invariably tell me a very similar story involving people of their acquaintance. There are enough people out there doing stuff like this that the pattern becomes familiar to anyone who pays attention. When the “fantasy” comes true in real life, it’s never going to lead to a good place, which brings us back to the story of Taylor Frankie Paul, the TikTok star whose marriage got wrecked because of the “swinger” lifestyle. Her husband moved out and moved on with his life, but Taylor’s viral fame attracted the interest of Jeff Jenkins, an experienced reality-show producer who had worked on Keeping Up With the Kardashians and its various spinoffs. The result was a Hulu series, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which made its debut in September 2024, and has been continued through a total of 40 episodes.

Knocked up: Dakota Mortensen and Taylor Frankie Paul in 2024.

Taylor and her circle of friends star in the show, with the usual “reality TV” drama, some of which is actually real. In the first season, Taylor learned that she was pregnant by her new boyfriend, a guy named Dakota Mortensen. The couple had a baby boy together, but they broke up in the second season. Season Three dropped late last year, and earlier this month the fourth season made its debut. Meanwhile, in September last year, ABC announced that Taylor Frankie Paul would star in the next season of The Bachelorette. Because you are an intelligent, responsible adult, you have never watched The Bachelorette. It’s a long-running spinoff of The Bachelor, which made a ratings splash when it debuted in 2002, with one guy choosing his prospective bride from a group of female contestants. The Bachelorette, which premiered in 2003, just reversed that format, with a group of guys vying to be chosen by a woman.

Who watches this garbage? Not me and not you, as we are intelligent, responsible adults, but many millions of viewers tune in habitually for The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, which is why this garbage has been on TV for more than 20 years. This same audience of tasteless dimwits, of course, are also the target audience for “reality” shows like The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, so it made perfect sense — from a marketing standpoint — for ABC to make Taylor Frankie Paul the star of the new season of The Bachelorette. From other perspectives, however, this choice made no sense at all. Like, how is this woman a “catch”?

Let’s not critique her looks, OK? But aside from her appearance — certainly no better than 6/10 — here is a 31-year-old single mother of three, and yet ABC expected their audience to buy into the idea that men were literally lining up to compete for the chance to make her their bride?

Is the dating scene for guys really that bad nowadays? Even if you presume your audience to be a bunch of dimwits (a safe assumption for “reality TV,” to be honest), this premise strains credulity. And yet ABC invested millions of dollars in this, the 22nd season of The Bachelorette, starring the rode-hard-and-put-up-wet Taylor Frankie Paul.

The red flags were ignored until disaster struck this week:

Taylor Frankie Paul repeatedly attacked Dakota Mortensen during the 2023 incident in which she pled guilty to aggravated assault, and the video shows that one of her children was struck during the fight.
TMZ has obtained the video — a copy of which was evidence in the case — and it’s hard to watch. Dakota struggles to record the altercation with his cellphone as Taylor puts him in a headlock. She backs off … but then charges and tries to kick him.
The struggle turns violent as Taylor grabs a metal barstool and hurls it at Dakota. He screams at her — “your daughter is sitting right there” — but she persists, throwing 2 more stools at him. At that moment, you hear her child, who was curled up on the couch, begin crying.
The police report says the 5-year-old girl was hit and later had a “goose egg on her head.”
Police arrived on the scene that night after a neighbor called to complain about the noise, and in the video you hear the officer trying to separate them.

So, not only is she a 31-year-old single mom, but she’s also a dangerously violent lunatic. That was enough for ABC to cancel the whole season:

ABC has canceled Season 22 of The Bachelorette after a 2023 video of Taylor Frankie Paul — who was set to lead the new season — fighting her ex-boyfriend went viral.
The entire upcoming season of The Bachelorette was canceled on Thursday, just three days before it was set to premiere. . . .
“In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of The Bachelorette at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family,” a Disney Entertainment Television spokesperson told People. . . .
Recently, a source told People that filming has apparently been halted for Season 5 of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives due to “some pretty serious stuff happening regarding [Paul’s] past.”
A spokesperson for the Draper City Police Department, meanwhile, told the magazine that there is an open “domestic assault investigation” involving Paul and Mortensen.

Wow! In addition to cancelling an entire season of The Bachelorette, it now appears the future of Taylor’s franchise The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives may be in jeopardy. And the tea keeps spilling.

Because you are an intelligent and responsible adult, you will probably not be surprised to learn that the court has ordered Taylor Frankie Paul to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. What do you suppose this evaluation will reveal? That she is deranged and demented? Unhinged, wacko, daffy, non compos mentis and off her rocker? Nuttier than a Snickers bar, a few fries short of a Happy Meal and cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?

Does it seem to you in hindsight that maybe there was some clue that this woman was in need of a straitjacket and a padded cell? Perhaps the fact that she wrecked her marriage because of the “swinger” lifestyle?

If only someone had warned them that Crazy People Are Dangerous.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! It never ceases to amaze me how sometimes I spend hours working on a lengthy essay, and what gets quoted is a quick jibe that only took me 15 seconds.



 

Category: Celebrities, Scandal, Sex

In The Mailbox: 03.19.26

Posted on | March 20, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

It’s never too late to slam the Oscars.

Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Director Blue: The Storming of the Bastille (1789), Six Charts That Keep America’s Spies Up At Night,
357 Magnum: Afroman v Adams County, Ohio, Sheriff’s Department – 1st Amendment Victory
EBL: Let’s Make A Pizza, Croaker Bait, Rickshaw Girls, and Cesar Chavez
Twitchy: Repulic of Somaliland Drops Some Damning Receipts About Ilhan Omar, Zohran Mamdani Furious That Judge Has Ordered City Council Employee Deported, and NOT A JOKE – Ex-CNN Potato To Lead Ole Miss Panel On How Media Can Regain Public Trust
Louder With Crowder: Trans teacher says Florida is no longer safe for her, Mamdani wants to bring this beloved NYC councilwoman up on “ethics” charges over mean tweets about Islam, Judge releases man with 35 priors…just so he can get arrested on 27 new felony charges, Radical Islam vs. MAGA -This is The Battle For America, and Financial YouTuber forced to increase security after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, because the left calls him “fascist” too
Vox Popoli: Israeli Tail Wags US Dog, also, OpenAI vs Anthropic
Cedar Sanderson: Waiting For Perfection

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Greatness: White House Offers Concessions on DHS Funding to End Shutdown, Federal Court Blocks Kennedy’s Vaccine Changes, Invalidates Advisory Panel, Legacy Media Outlets Describe Convicted Antifa Goons Who Attacked ICE Facility in Texas as ‘Protesters’, Sexual Abuse Allegations Forcing the Left to Reconsider Civil Rights Icon César Chavez, and Joe Kent Under FBI Investigation for Alleged Leaks
BattleSwarm: Iran Strikes: Day 20
Behind The Black: Russia and SpaceX complete launches, Scientists compile catalog of the 69 known rocky exoplanets in the habitable zone, Uranus’s moon Oberon, of which we know little, German rocket startup signs deal to launch from SaxaVord spaceport in Scotland, and Rocket Lab wins $190 million hypersonic test contract from War Department
Cafe Hayek: More On Average Real New Worth of U.S. Households, also, Premature????
CDR Salamander: Will Scandinavian & Baltic Europe Lead Our European Allies to the Strait of Hormuz?
Don Surber: Worst war coverage ever
First Street Journal: Will Bunch wants yet another failed impeachment of President Trump, also, Electric heat is fine, as far as it goes, but I always want a backup
Gates Of Vienna: Expect Delays, Part I and Part II, also, Jihadis In Our Midst: ‘Property of Allah’
The Geller Report: Trump Dumps on NATO After Every Spineless NATO Ally Refuses to Help Secure Hormuz, Why the Shapiro–Carlson–Kelly–Morgan Fight Actually Matters, U.S. Intelligence Agencies Suppressed China Interference Evidence to Undermine Trump, Almost 200 House Democrats Vote Against Deporting People Who Commit Welfare Fraud, and Joe Kent Didn’t Resign—He Imploded
Hollywood In Toto: Why I Started VirtueVigil.com, also, Tubi-TikTok Deal Another Blow to Hollywood, Inc.?
Legal Insurrection: Past Tweet Comes Back to Bite Counterterrorism Director Who Quit Over Iran War, Argentina Formally Withdraws from the World Health Organization, UC-Berkeley Prof Claims Anti-DEI Efforts Rooted in ‘White Male Christian Supremacy’, MS NOW Dropping the ‘News’ Act, Doubling Down on Resistance Programming, and Federal Probe Finds Faculty Members are Fueling Antisemitism on College Campuses
Nebraska Energy Observer: Iran
Outkick: VCU Proves Payroll Isn’t Everything, Stuns North Carolina In Historic 19-Point NCAA Tournament Comeback Win, WBC Finale Crushes Ratings, Becomes Most-Watched Game Ever, The Arizona Diamondbacks Will Gladly Sell You 8 Pounds Of Nachos In A Bucket, Cameron Brink Celebrates Her New WNBA Salary In A Green Bikini, Livvy Dunne Gets Soaked & Trump’s Pearl Harbor, and Make It Three In A Row For Penny Lane & Her String Bikini As SI Swimsuit Announces Her Return
Power Line: An Optimistic Take On Iran, Wanted – Magic Batteries, With a little help from their friends, In re birthright citizenship, and A party in Londonistan
Racket News: Kash Patel Embraces Big Brother
Shark Tank:  DeSantis Rebukes Sheriff Judd On Illegal Immigration Enforcement
The Political Hat: Same March, Different Boots
This Ain’t Hell: Canadian surprise ending, VA Cleared to Appoint Legal Guardians, and Where did Markwayne “Smell war?”
Transterrestrial Musings: The Sad State Of California, “A Cult Of Death”, and The Program Of Record
Victory Girls: Fetterman Correctly Says Dems Are Ruled By Trump Obsession
Watts Up With That: Wrong, Daily Mail – Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier Isn’t on the Road to Collapse by 2067, Democrats Retreat from Climate Activism (energy affordability, electability in play), Half a Million Balsa Trees Illegally Logged in Amazon Rainforest Every Year to Feed Global Wind Turbine Demand, and Energy Expert: Germany’s Nuclear Phaseout Was A “500 Billion Euro Mistake”
The Federalist: ?From The Bible To The Reformation, You Don’t Get America Without Christianity, Ohio, Indiana Stop The ‘Horrors’ Of Ranked-Choice Voting From Corrupting Their Elections, Thousands Of Noncitizens On Voter Rolls In One County Underscore Need For SAVE Act, MAGA Isn’t Dying Because Of The Iran War, and Supreme Court Gears Up To Decide If Elections End On Election Day
Mark Steyn:Happy Anniversary

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Category: Linkagery

Gavin Newsom’s ‘Cougar Crossing’ Is the Perfect Symbol of Californication

Posted on | March 19, 2026 | No Comments

Behind schedule and over budget and probably doomed to failure — this is a succinct summary of what is officially known as the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, but is now being sarcastically called the “California Cougar Crossing,” a monumental waste of California taxpayers’ money. In January, World Animal News published a happy tale:

A groundbreaking conservation initiative is nearing completion in Southern California. The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, the world’s largest wildlife bridge over a freeway, is almost ready to welcome animals, and now the public can get a rare preview before it officially opens.
Currently under construction in Agoura Hills, California, the massive crossing spans 10 lanes of the 101 Freeway, reconnecting a critical wildlife corridor in the Santa Monica Mountains that has been fragmented for decades by development. The wildlife crossing is expected to open in late 2026, at which point the bridge will connect wildlife habitat on both sides of the 101 Freeway, allowing animals to safely move between once-isolated landscapes.
The crossing aims to prevent local mountain lion extinction by enabling safe passage across the freeway and restoring genetic diversity between isolated populations.

Note that it is “nearing completion” and “almost ready,” which are euphemisms for overdue and running behind. The project was supposed to have been completed in 2024 and, having failed to meet their original deadline, the people in charge of it are now promising to finish by the end of this year, but if past performance is any predictor of future results, it won’t be done before 2028, by which time Gov. Gavin Newsom’s presidential campaign will have collapsed in ruins.

The crossing will span the Ventura Freeway (U.S. 101) west of Calabasas, and began with environmental activists because, “Since 2002, at least a dozen mountain lions have been killed on the freeway.” Originally, the idea was that it could be funded almost entirely by private donations:

In 2014, the National Wildlife Federation, the Santa Monica Mountains Fund, and the #SaveLACougars campaign began to raise money for the project. . . .
In 2014, the California Wildlife Conservation Board gave a $650,000 grant to the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains for the design of the crossing.
In 2015, the California Coastal Commission gave a $1 million grant to Caltrans for environmental assessment. Private donors were encouraged to contribute. The project stalled for years due to lack of funding. In May 2021, the Annenberg Foundation pledged to donate another $25 million once the project raised $35 million. As of mid-April 2022, donations totaled more than $87 million, with more than 5,000 people, foundations, agencies, and businesses contributing expertise and donations.
In February of 2026 Governor Newsom announced that an additional $18 million would be provided by California from general funds in addition to the funds allocated by the California Transportation Commission from the Environmental Enhancement and Mitigation Program. . . .
A groundbreaking ceremony was held on Earth Day in April 2022 with Governor Gavin Newsom, Wallis Annenberg, wildlife biologists and members of the public along with local, state and federal legislators. Caltrans set the beginning of construction for spring 2022 with construction to be completed within two years.

So, it was supposed to be completed by spring 2024, but was still unfinished last month when Newsom threw an extra $18 million in taxpayer money at the project which, we are now told, will finally be open for wildlife traffic by the end of this year. It’s been nearly five years since the Annenberg Foundation pledged $25 million for the #SaveLACougars project and yet, so far, the number of cougars saved is still zero.

Like the infamous “Train to Nowhere” project, this is a boondoggle, an excuse to throw away money based on idealistic goals without regard for questions of necessity or efficacy. People who think in grandiose terms of “saving the planet” cannot be expected to do reasonable cost-benefit analyses, or look for cheaper ways of doing things. The larger goal gets infused with quasi-religious morality, and anyone asking questions — “Can we really afford this? Is there some way of accomplishing the goal without such costly interventions?” — is denounced as a heretic: You hate the environment! You want animals to die!

Ultimately, however, it’s a personnel problem. What kind of people do you think would be in charge of something like this? Christopher Rufo and Kenneth Schrupp of City Journal asked around:

What was supposed to be the world’s largest wildlife crossing has become a jobs program for environmentalists, with taxpayers on the hook for what WAWC leader Beth Pratt told us is an overpass “for everything from monarch butterflies to mountain lions.”
Pratt, a cougar-sweater-wearing environmental activist who serves on WAWC’s Partner Leadership Team, is the program’s public face. She is also a regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation. . . .
This past January, donning a hard hat and a “#SAVELACOUGARS” jersey, Pratt announced a possible $21 million overage. She effectively blamed President Trump, attributing the multimillion-dollar overrun to “tariffs, inflation, [and] labor problems.”
“There’s no boondoggle,” she said. “Given the times we’re living in,” a potential $21 million overage is “not that bad.”
In response to our request for comment on the cost increases, Pratt argued that they were consistent with those faced by other construction projects.
Within days of Pratt’s announcement, the California Transportation Commission funneled another $18.8 million to the project, well exceeding the governor’s $10 million cap. The project’s total price tag now reaches about $114 million, reportedly including some $77 million in state funds. . . .
Why has a project primarily consisting of a bridge for animals cost over $100 million? One reason is that Newsom and WAWC’s philanthropic supporters apparently don’t mind it becoming a patronage program. As the WAWC-endorsing Wildlife Crossing Fund notes, citing the California Department of Transportation’s estimate, “for every $1 billion spent” on wildlife crossings, “13,000 jobs are created.”
Some of these jobs are absurd. The National Wildlife Federation’s WAWC website claims that “[o]ur Native Plant Nursery” — apparently funded by the nonprofit SAMO Fund and other “partners” — “has prioritized hiring Indigenous team members to help steward the plants that will vegetate the bridge.” The nursery’s co-manager said she makes an “offering” after collecting seeds, sometimes including pieces of her hair.

It’s a freaking DEI project! They’re hiring “Indigenous team members” to do some kind of shamanistic ritual offerings while collecting seeds!

Imagine doing a home-improvement project, and hiring a landscaping contractor who tells you, “Well, first we need to collect the seeds.”

These California kooks actually hired a full-time staff to run a nursery to grow plants from scratch for landscaping on the cougar crossing, as if the animals (who are the intended beneficiaries of the project) would have been disappointed if they’d just gone out and bought some ordinary bushes at Home Depot. Because I’m insanely curious, I had to Google the name “Jewlya Samaniego,” and discovered that she is “an ethnobotany expert” who “is also a proud member of the Tataviam tribe from the Siutconga village and has ancestral ties to the Chumash through the Tapuu village.” Translation: Julia’s a college graduate from Encino.

There’s no explanation for why she’s now spelling her name “Jewlya,” and I don’t claim to be an expert, but I think “ethnobotany” is basically Critical Race Theory applied to plants. The point, however, is that these are the kind of people who get hired when Gavin Newsom decides to pump $77 million into a project, and if you’re wondering why the project is over a year behind schedule, that’s why. When City Journal tried to get an explanation from Newsom’s staff, the response was insulting.

While I would never make the mistake of underestimating the stupidity of Democratic primary voters, I have a hard time believing they would actually nominate Newsom, given the spectacular failures of his administration in California, of which this “cougar crossing” boondoggle isn’t even in the Top Five. While polls show Newsom a leading contender in the 2028 Democratic primary field, that just means there will be a giant target on his back when the debates start in mid-2027. Every other candidate on that debate stage is going to be pointing out what a wreck Newsom has made of California. If Democrats were smart (which obviously they’re not), they would get behind Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. Conservatives in Pennsylvania can give you a long list of problems with Shapiro, but at least he hasn’t completely ruined Pennsylvania the way Newsom has ruined California.



 

Category: California, Environmentalism
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