A very big baby penguin! The Smithsonian Magazine wrote it up: In late January, caretakers at Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium in Australia were ecstatic when a king penguin chick successfully emerged from his shell. The baby, which they named Pesto, was the only king penguin born at the aquarium in the last two years. He weighed less than a pound. They’ve since watched as the youngster grew—and kept growing. As of Wednesday, Pesto weighs a whopping 51.8 pounds, according to the aquarium. His fame took off when the aquarium threw a gender reveal party (they can’t tell through a blood test.) Now he’s an internet superstar. But why is Pesto such a big boy? Caretakers chalk up his unusual size to a “hearty appetite”—he eats more than 25 fish a day—and good genes. His biological father, a king penguin named Blake, is one of the biggest and oldest penguins at the facility, weighing in at around 39 pounds, per New Atlas’ Bronwyn Thompson. However, Pesto is being raised by a younger couple, Tango and Hudson, who have been taking good care of him, according to the aquarium.
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Timothy Snyder on Trump’s “negotiating” skills as reflected in his meeting with Zelensky yesterday: This piece by Will Saletan in the Bulwark is quite good as well: TRUMP’S FOREIGN POLICY, like his views on everything else, is about loyalty to Trump. He prefers a dictator who likes him to a freely elected leader who doesn’t. As Trump put it at a rally on Monday: “I don’t like anybody that doesn’t like me.” That’s why Trump likes Vladimir Putin. He knows Putin is trying to help him recapture the White House. On September 7, three days after the Justice Department exposed a Russian disinformation campaign designed to help Trump in this year’s election, Trump rebuked DOJ officials for the announcement. “They don’t look at China, and they don’t look at Iran,” he complained, falsely, at a rally in Wisconsin. “They look at Russia. I don’t know what it is with poor Russia.” Trump made it clear that he appreciated Putin’s help. With a wry smile, he noted: It’s not great for Ukraine that Trump sees Putin as his friend.
Peter Wehner at The Atlantic (gift link) gives the full rundown on North Carolina Governor Mark Robinson and it’s just so … much. As he points out, most of this was known before he became Lt Gov., so apparently the Republicans of North Carolina think it’s all just fine: Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, has described himself as a “devout Christian.” But a recent CNN story reported that several years ago, he was a porn-site user who enjoyed watching transgender pornography (despite a history of an anti-transgender rhetoric), referred to himself as a “Black Nazi,” and supported the return of slavery. According to CNN, commenters on the website discussed whether to believe the story of a woman who said she was raped by her taxi driver while intoxicated. Robinson wrote in response, “And the moral of this story….. Don’t f**k a white b*tch!” Politico reports that Robinson’s email address was also registered on Ashley Madison, a website for married people seeking affairs.
Yes, I know people are still suffering, an unfortunately common circumstance in our unequal society. There is more work to do, always. But Biden did something very smart and the Republicans did everything they could to stop it. I will be beyond disgusted if Trump ekes out another win and takes credit for all this and the media and MAGA happily give it to him. Which they will.
Naturally, the MAGAs had him removed. Their sense of humor is confined to making fun of disabled people and chanting “lock her up” and “send them back.”
McDonald’s is actually not on her resume which he used to use as proof that she never worked there. But nobody puts their summer job while they’re in school on their professional resume. (Trump wouldn’t know that because he never had a job other than working for daddy before he inherited his $400 million.) Now he’s saying is all over her resume I guess to push that she’s a liar? I don’t know why Trump thinks this is such a put away shot but he’s leaning very heavily on it. Usually I can see why he thinks something is going to resonate with the MAGA cult but I honestly can’t see it this time. Sure, he wants to portray her as lying about her normal middle class upbringing (I guess to say she’s a Marxist???) but the fact that she worked at McDonald’s doesn’t prove or disprove that. She’s not lying but I doubt there’s a record of her short term part time job from 40 years ago. So is he trying to make this into a new “birther ” scandal? (“Burger” scandal?) I just don’t get it.
So is courage and cowardice Donald Trump wants Americans to help in his lifelong struggle to work out his daddy issues. Mr. Insecurity has complained for decades that the world (pretty much everyone) has been laughing at us (him). If there is a greater malevolent bundle of psychological maldevelopment walking this earth, we’ve never heard of them because they were not born into $413 million and into the family of a prominent (and crooked) New York City land developer. Just ten days ago, Trump reprised his soul-cry: “THE WORLD IS LAUGHING AT US AS FOOLS, THEY ARE STEALING OUR JOBS AND OUR WEALTH. WE CANNOT LET THEM LAUGH ANY LONGER.” That is, give him the White House and he’ll make THEM all pay. He’ll show you. He’ll get even. He’ll deport anyone he doesn’t execute or jail. Just you wait! Take him at his word.
Donald Trump is running for president. And he may just win. It’s that close. And this is what he’s doing 6 weeks before the election. The watches sell for $499, which I’m sure is a bargain for the people who are suffering in this economy which Trump says is the worst in American history. But get a load of this: He is basically soliciting bribes at this point. He can raise a quick million and a half from rich buddies and it will go directly into his pocket before the election. As we’ve seen with his promises to everyone from the oil and gas industry to the vape industry in exchange for policy promises in the last few months, Trump is in a frenzy of corruption right now. I wonder why this hasn’t really penetrated the media? We’re hearing lots of details about Eric Adams’ alleged crimes, some of which are worth big money and others which are penny ante graft.
There’s a new poll out by the Barna group which surveys evangelical Christians and is considered to be very reliable. There’s lot’s of interesting information but this struck me as important: Historical data indicates that turnout among the voting age population was 53.6%in 2012 (Obama-Romney); 54.6% in 2016 (Trump-Clinton); and 61.3% in 2020(Trump-Biden). If the election were held now (about 7 weeks before November5th), the expected turnout would be 50% of voting age adults. Typically, thatturnout figure will rise several percentage points, likely concluding in the 53% to 55% range. That would put the 2024 election squarely in line with the turnout levels of 2012 and 2016, but below that of 2020. It’s big problem for Trump if any of his evangelical followers don’t vote. But one biggie there at the bottom is especially problematic this time. The voters who say the election is rigged are almost certainly his. He can’t afford to lose them. I must say, this surprised me (actually not…) Moral decline was identified by less than one-quarter of the churched Christians(23%) as a defining issue in this election.
Project 2025 wants you caught by surprise Streets in low-lying areas here are already flooded and Hurricane Helene isn’t even here yet. Public schools are closed preemtively. Emergency preparations are underway. But at least we had warnings as close as your TV or computer. A writer some time back recounted an airplane conversation in which his seatmate remarked that the great thing about computers was that you could always turn them off. Considering that they and thousands of others were sitting in aluminum tubes in the air traffic pattern high above a major city, and that the only thing keeping them from colliding and dying was FAA air traffic computers, the writer was pretty sure he didn’t want them turned off. * Project 2025 wants a lot of government turned off.