The Other McCain

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

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.



 

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

In The Mailbox: 03.18.26

Posted on | March 19, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Behold, the Based Books Niche Sale!
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Hollywood Suffers an Outbreak of Common Sense, also Believe the Science? Not With This Much Fraud
Director Blue: Lies, Leaks, & Losers
EBL: African Pompano, “Tam O’Shanter”, and Irish Women 1967
Twitchy: Gov. Hairgel’s Press Office Kicks Itself In The Crotch Trying to Own Boondoggle Critics, No CalFresh Food Asistance For “Refugees” and “Asylum Seekers” Next Month, and Frog of Shame Will Remain People’s Choice Over New X Dislike Button
Louder With Crowder: Gavin Newsom’s California can’t build a bridge for butterflies without it being an overbudget boondoggle, JD Vance asks voters a simple question, Dipstick Jamie Raskin declares our Founding Fathers were undocumented immigrants, thinks it’s a smart take, Maybe MAGA shouldn’t be defined by quitters of MAGA, and NY Governor BEGS rich people chased out of New York to come back to help fund her woke social agenda
Vox Popoli: A Notable Resignation, Even Nukes Don’t Win Air Wars, The 4-Day War, Kill All You Like, and No Children, No Economy
Cedar Sanderson: The Beautiful Woman Without Mercy
Jim McCoy: The Dungeon Crawler Carl Books
L’Ombre de L’Olivier: Trumping Everyone On Iran

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Greatness: Activists in LA Caught on Video Targeting Homeless People, Drug Addicts in Cash for Ballots Scheme, White House Offers Concessions on DHS Funding to End Shutdown, California’s Future? Tom Steyer, the Oxymoronic Progressive Oligarch, The Party That Forgot Its Base – How the GOP has Failed White America (Part 2), and Did U.S. Intel Agencies Hide Chinese Interference in 2020 Election from ‘Vulgarian’ Trump?
BattleSwarm: Military Tab-Clearing Video Roundup
Behind The Black: Tantalizing Titania, Uranus’s largest moon, Scientists detect the five chemicals that make up DNA/RNA inside Ryugu samples, Solar scientists: We finally think we know the location of the Sun’s dynamo, and Why are commercial space startups shifting their focus to the military? $185 billion is the answer
Cafe Hayek: Excess Capacity Is Balanced By Inadequate Capacity
CDR Salamander: Sam Takes The Helm at the Naval War College Review
Dana Loesch: Joe Kent – Grifter Extraordinaire
Don Surber: The Little Orange Rooster
The Geller Report: Pakistan Bombs Hospital Killing 400 – No Media Coverage, Alleged NYC Subway Murderer Released “With a Ticket” in Fatal Attack, and Iranian President Pezeshkian Wants to Resign
Glenn Reynolds: Don’t Drone Me Bro
Hollywood In Toto: Trump Effect? Oscar Ratings Crater in Second Term, also, Forget Tilly Norwood … Here Comes A.I. Val Kilmer 
Legal Insurrection: Electric Car Registrations in U.S. Plunge 41% as Gas-Powered Vehicles Gain Traction, ‘Minnesota was Big, but California is Even Bigger’, DHS has Arrested Over ‘7,800 Criminal Illegal Alien Gang Members’ Under Trump, Harvard Won’t Explain Historic Decline in Jewish Enrollment, and In 2022, TX Dem Senate Candidate James Talarico Pushed Veganism to Fight Climate Change
Nebraska Energy Observer: What’s Going On Out Here
Outkick: Bucks Want To Shut Down Giannis Antetokounmpo, The Greek Freak Reportedly Won’t Let Them, Did SMU Mislead The NCAA? Eli Drinkwitz Says College Football Could Become Like MLB, Gets His Facts Completely Wrong, Writer For ‘The Athletic’ Apologizes To Miguel Rojas Over False PED Report, and Sydney Sweeney’s Back In Lingerie With Lace Bra, Thong & Corset Promises Proving There’s No Slowing Her Down
Power Line: How Kent went, Mossad on the line, The Chimbo Files, and Please Come Back!
Shark Tank: AG Uthmeier Launches Investigation Into Discord, Claims It’s “Safe Haven” For Child Predators
The Political Hat: Brain Cells On A Microchip Taught To Play Doom Are Cyborg Gamer Catgirls And Other Kemonomimi Next?
This Ain’t Hell: Sailors Save Man From Submerged Car, also, Floating Drones
Transterrestrial Musings: Paul Ehrlich, also, Is Artemis Flirting With Disaster?
Victory Girls: Farm Labor Icon Cesar Chavez Canceled Over Sexual Abuse Allegations
Watts Up With That: Chicken Poop Biomass Plants May Shut When Subsidies End, WRONG, Chicago Tribune – Climate Change Isn’t Making Hailstorms Worse, Hormuz Choke Point Displays ‘Green’ Vulnerabilities and US Power, A New Way to Measure U.S. Energy Security, and A Re-Look at ‘The Bet’ (Simon, Ehrlich, and Paul Sabin)
The Federalist: America Can’t Be A Welfare State And A Republic At The Same Time, Bill Shines Faster Light On Federal Government Spending, Sen. Bill Cassidy Defends Medicare Scammers Over America’s Seniors, ‘We Can’t Send This To DOJ’: New Doc Alleges More Deception From Russia Hoaxer Kevin Clinesmith, and Indiana Court Murders The English Language And Law To Call Abortion ‘Religious Exercise’
Mark Steyn: Live Around the Planet – Week Three, also, War Aims

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In The Mailbox: 03.17.26

Posted on | March 18, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Maybe this time good St. Pat can start with the snakes in public office, for example, their wretched Taoiseach.

Hope everyone’s being moderate on Amateur Night.
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Director Blue: The Day Paul Revere Rode To Lexington (1775), 
EBL: Oldest Italian Fish and Chips in Dublin, Maureen O’Hara, Dublin Food, and Saint Patrick 
Twitchy: Gov. Hairgel’s Press Office Gets Ratioed Into the Sun by Nick Shirley & Others, Proposed Rule Could Ban Trump From Major International Events Including the Olympics, and Joe Kent Probably Should Have Deleted All These Old Posts Before Resigning Publicly
Louder With Crowder: As Nick Shirley exposes California hospice fraud, a woman pees in the street behind him, Ireland’s socialist president uses St. Paddy’s Day to push globalism, Woke Canadian “ministers” drop cringe video targeting LGBTQ+AI youth while wearing Palestinian scarves, Rep. Raskin drops latest reason Democrats think married women are too dumb to get a voter ID, and Zohran Mamdani remembers the real reason for St. Patrick’s Day…Palestine?
Vox Popoli: False Flag Warning, Defeated at Sea, How Fake? This Fake, Why the US Navy Retreated, and Aegis Destroyer Reported Sunk
The Abbey of Misrule: Splendor of Fire, Speed of Lightning
Defending The Wood Perilous: My Son The Author!
The Bugscuffle Gazette: Publisher Stuff

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Greatness: California Democrat Lawmaker Seeks to Create Two New Muslim State Holidays, Federal Court Blocks Kennedy’s Vaccine Changes, Invalidates Advisory Panel, How to Stop Iran’s Dangerous New Sejjil Missiles, Finish the Job, Mr. President, and California’s Education Woes Continue to Mount
BattleSwarm: Iran Strikes – Day 18
Behind The Black: Voyager-2’s only close-up image of Uranus’s moon Umbriel, Modeling says the Small Magellanic Cloud passed through the Large Magellanic Cloud 200 million years ago, The first Artemis lunar landings might not go to the Moon’s south pole, Canada leases Nova Scotia spaceport for $200 million, and South Korean rocket startup Innospace pinpoints the cause of its first launch failure
Cafe Hayek: Dani Rodrik, Like Many Protectionists, Confuses Means With Ends
CDR Salamander: Shyam Sankar’s Four “Sputnik Moments”
Don Surber: The Trump Dividend
The Geller Report: Iranian Missile Strikes Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Vocal Antisemite Joe Kent Resigns As Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Over Iran War, Gulf States Press US to Neutralize Iran For Good, CEOs of Nation’s Leading Airlines Publish Open Letter Pressing Democrats to Open Government, and Iran Regime Savages Gang-Raped & Tortured Nurses Who Treated Wounded Protesters
Hollywood In Toto: Ready or Not 2: Here I Come Should Stay Hidden, also, Adam Carolla Says One Battle After Another Is an MS NOW Fever Dream
Legal Insurrection: Iran’s De Facto Leader Ali Larijani Eliminated in Israeli Strike, Emails Reveal New Names Targeted by Jack Smith During Trump Investigation, Potomac Sewage Disaster Shows Cost of ‘Equity’ Over Expertise, China’s Air Displays Fail to Deter Emerging Taiwan–Japan Alignment, and Acting Deputy TSA Administrator: ‘We May Have to Quite Literally Shut Down Airports’
Nebraska Energy Observer: Road Trip
Outkick: Venezuela Breaks Team USA’s Heart, Wins First World Baseball Classic Title, NASCAR Driver Suspended For Mocking IndyCar Driver On Livestream, Maxx Crosby Shares ‘Suspicious’ First Meeting With Ravens Before Trade Died, Jack Hughes Calls Out Hockey Hall Of Fame For Taking Team USA’s Golden Goal Pucks, and Megan Fox Put On Her Finest Lingerie-Inspired Outfit To Make An Important Announcement: ‘I Go Both Ways’
Power Line: Travel chaos spreads as Dems try to defund police, America Alone, According to Al Jazeera, Exit the billionaire, and In which we speak with an Israeli official
Racket News: Warriors’ Casino – The People Making A Killing By Gambling on War
Shark Tank: Latanya Peterson Joins Collins Campaign
STUMP: Geeking Out – Accidental Causes of Death In The U.S. by Ages, Sex, and Major Category
This Ain’t Hell: Mines, also, Meet the New Boss
Transterrestrial Musings: “Because It’s Wrong”
Victory Girls: Trump Talks Cuba and Now We’re All Waiting for the Havana Tower Rendering
Watts Up With That: Coal Needs Boots on the Ground, ‘Ever-wrong Ehrlich’s’ Greatest Hits (er, misses), and The Jevons Paradox Explains Why Net Zero is an Exercise in Futility
The Federalist: How The GOP Can Stop Being The Do-Nothing Party And Offer America A Vision To Vote For, The Media Shouldn’t Feel Threatened By The ‘Public Interest,’ But Of Course They Do, Ireland Lost Its Magic When It Lost Its Catholic Heritage, 4 Sneaky Ways GOP Senators Will Try To Block Voting Protections This Week, and Wyoming Is Ground Zero For RINOs’ War Against Conservatives
Mark Steyn: The Waning of the Green

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In The Mailbox: 03.16.26

Posted on | March 17, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

On this day in 1984, Gary Plauche cured a pedophile (who had been abusing Gary’s son) with a single dose of leadicillin.
Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.

OVER THE TRANSOM
Director Blue: Micro-Targeting Iran’s Secret Police, The Day The Sky Exploded Over Tunguska (1908), Iran Defense Analysis – “The Math Says It’s Almost Over”, 
357 Magnum: 16 March 1984: The Moment Gary Plauche shot Jeff Doucet, and Don’t Bring a BB Gun to a Gunfight
EBL: Peace Proposal with Gayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, Barramundi Fish, Tucker TACO Time, The Madison, and MAGA Ides of March
Twitchy: While Hollywood Congratulates Itself, Here’s A Song That Should Have Won An Oscar, Democrat Senator’s Term Limits Pledge Aged As Well As You’d Expect, and You Gonna Cry, Kinzinger?
Louder With Crowder: Gavin Newsom’s LA blew $20 million on shelter for 32 homeless people, and it’s not finished after FIVE years, Joy Reid Claims Women in America only have it slightly better than they do in Iran, Actress Patricia Arquette claims without evidence there’s totally an attack on the “trans” community, Grandmother spends 6-months in jail after AI wrongly identifies her for bank fraud in a state she’s never been to, and Criminal illegal immigrant shoves two Americans into subway tracks, now we’re finding out how many times he’s been deported
Vox Popoli: Wizards and Their Games, How Bad is the War Going? The Return of Appendix N, A True Soulsigma Fan, and Is Netanyahu Dead?
Cedar Sanderson: An Interview With FanFiction Readers, also, Coral Honeysuckle
The Bugscuffle Gazette: Self-Care
Upstream Reviews: Pearl of Fire
Draw & Talk Comics: Guess Who’s Back? Again?
Stoic Observations: The Irrationality of the Infinite, also, The Incubator Story

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Greatness: Las Vegas Cops Refuse to Release Violent Repeat Offender, Defying Judge’s Order, Obama’s Presidential Center Seeking 100 Unpaid Volunteers to Staff Lavish Facility, Bessent Says Treasury Department Shutting Down Sham Charities That Funnel Money to Hamas, N.C. Medicaid Scammers Sentenced to More than 14 Years in Prison For ‘Somali-Style fraud’ Scheme, and The Party That Forgot Its Base: How the GOP Has Failed White America (Part 1)
Animal Magnetism: Animal Magnetism LIVE Ep. 79 – Spreading Worries
BattleSwarm: Antifa Commies Convicted, Adobe Fined, CEO Steps Down, Stock Tanks. AI? and Motjaba: Dead, Or Just Gay?
Behind The Black: Continuing our tour of Uranus’ five biggest moons: Ariel, A new startup proposes a giant 88,000 satellite data center constellation, Astronomers discover a super-Earth-sized exoplanet covered by a molten ocean of lava, New telescope array in Chile is financed entirely by private funds, and Terran Orbital wins contract to build cubesat to go to Apophis with ESA’s Ramses probe
CDR Salamander: Russia’s Fifth Spring At War – On Midrats, also, A Mine Threat? Where Are The Minesweepers?
Don Surber: Democrats help Iran, 
Elizabeth Nickson: Without The SAVE Act, We’re Living In A Slave State
First Street Journal: You in a heap o’ trouble, boy, also, I check Bluesky so you don’t have to
Gates Of Vienna: Religions of Hate and Murder, Sharia in Germany: “It’s Not a Fringe Phenomenon”, Update on Synagogue Attacks in the Low Countries, and We Don’t Want the Führer! We Want the Ayatollah!
The Geller Report: Massive “MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN” Rally in NYC Backing Trump Administration’s Strikes on Iran, ENEMEDIA WANTS US TO LOSE, Israel Confirms That Michigan Jihad Attacker’s Brother Was Hezb’Allah Commander, Trump Vows to Secure Strait of Hormuz as Warships Deploy, Coalition Grows, and After Wave of Islamic Terror Attacks, Mayor Mamdani Decries Crisis of ‘Islamophobia’
Hollywood In Toto: Can Conan O’Brien Protect Hollywood from Itself? Original Highlander Is Still a Glorious Mess, SNL Mocks Tucker Carlson, Gets Pundit 100 Percent Wrong, Oscars 2026 Review: Resist, They Must, and Why Won’t Hollywood Rally Behind Ben Bankas?
Legal Insurrection: Fremont Jewelry Raid Shows How California’s ‘Reforms’ Empower Criminal Mobs, Replacing History With Wildlife – The Suicidal Insanity of Anti-Western Ideology, Women’s Basketball Team at Howard U. to Remain in Locker Room Rather Than Stand for National Anthem, Censored, Dismissed, Confirmed – History of Blood Clots & COVID Vaccine Debate, and ‘It’s Up to You’: Airlines Demand Congress Fully Fund DHS as Chaos Continues
Nebraska Energy Observer: Colonel Schlicter, Sunday Stiff, and From the Land of Muddy Waters
Outkick: Venezuela Rallies Past Undefeated Italy, Trump Congratulates ‘51st State’ On WBC Victory, NHL Commissioner Says Russia May Stay In Penalty Box For 2028 World Cup Of Hockey, Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr Is Now An Oscar Winner, Yes, MLB is More Popular Than the NBA, and Olivia Dunne’s Patriotic Uniform Has America-Hating Libs Sobbing
Power Line: Judge overruled on 3rd-country deportations, Lessons of the Iran Conflict, How to Destroy a City, The Ehrlich bomb, and Congratulations Are In Order!
Racket News: The Swamp Log, Will Evicting Blackstone Help Young People Buy Homes?
Shark Tank: Osceola County Sheriff Blackmon Endorses Jay Collins For Governor
Shot In The Dark: Liberators
The Political Hat: Happy Pi Day, The Ides of March, and Leviathan’s App Store
This Ain’t Hell: Artillery Get Some, Send in the Marines, Money, Honey, Rescue Pilot Logs Record Helo Time, and Korean War vet Matt Clark dead. Oh, and Paul Ehrlich
Transterrestrial Musings: Brian Doherty, Understanding Space Policy, and 100 Years Of Liquid Rockets
Victory Girls: Hillary Won’t Leave Any Dime Unmolested, AZ Democrat Goes Creepy in Trying to Defend Males in Women’s Sports, and Donald Trump Is The Epicenter Of All U. S. Issues
Watts Up With That: New energy policies in California threaten America’s national security, Dramatic New Ice Core Evidence Shows Current Century Warming Common Throughout the Last 400,000 Years, Ed Miliband’s Wind Farms Could Cripple UK ‘Iron Dome’ Anti-Missile Systems, Storing Green Energy to Last Germany 10 Days Would Require A 60-Million Tonne Battery, and Where Do We Go From Here? Climate Science at a Crossroads – or perhaps Going Down the Drain?
The Federalist: Trump Admin Can’t ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Without Abortion Pill Restrictions, SCOTUS To Hear Arguments On Trump’s Bid To End Temporary Status For Foreign Nationals, Carolyn Bessette’s Love Story Wasn’t A Fairy Tale, But Pre-Internet Dating Looks Like One, No, Republicans Don’t Need To ‘Change’ The Senate Rules To Pass The SAVE America Act, and Democrats Spent Your Money ‘Queering The Maps,’ And They Want To Do It Again
Mark Steyn: Best Years of Her Life – Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story, “Lullaby of Broadway”, Up the Escalator, and May I Have the Envelope…?

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Rule Five Sunday: Ersatz Gingermageddon

Posted on | March 16, 2026 | No Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Actually the best way to do this would be to have everyone supply links to toothsome redheads, but we have to work with what we’ve got. Thanks to @Rule5Texan for this one.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.

EBL: Saturday Night Girls With Guns, Sweet Potato Piper, Project Hail Mary, Juicy Chicken, Why Were Americans Slim In The 1970s? The Count of Monte Cristo, “Jezebel”, MAGA Womens Iranian Soccer Team, Hamnet, Mary Tyler Moore, and “Sunday Girl”

A VIEW FROM THE BEACH: Ari-Maj, MD Set to Set New Striper Regs, Fish Pic Friday – Ixia Miranda, Greed, I’ll Have the Meat Lovers with Added Pepperoni Thanks, The Wednesday Wetness, Cold Kills Menhaden Near Virginia Beach, MD Waterman Feels Betrayed by Gov. Moore, Tattoo Tuesday, Gone Fishin’, The Monday Morning Stimulus, Palm Sunday and MDE Investigator Pins Calvert Cliffs Fish Kill on Recreational Fishermen.

BACON TIME: Rule Five – Yes, I Will Have A Beer

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

 

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