Thursday, July 9, 2026
Flotsam and Jetsam - Platner Bails Out - Iran War Back On
This summary is not available. Please
click here to view the post.
A Thursday Tune - Eve Had The Metallic Shine Of Summer
Marie-Ann Hedonia is a Baltimore, Maryland-based synthesist and co-owner and operator of the label Paul and Marie’s Country Kitchen with her husband, Paul M’Olive.
Born and raised in Charm City, Hedonia’s exposure to the keyboard began with piano lessons in the fourth grade. “I remember trying to change the sound of my digital upright piano as a kid,” she later recalled to the site Atmospheres and Experiments. “I would pitch up the sound to bend the notes or try to alter the sound in some way. What I didn’t know, though, was that I was playing the wrong instrument for that application; what I really needed was a synth.”
Thereby having, in her words, “broken the seal,” Hedonia soon made a beeline for a used microKORG at a local music shop. As her zest to make music grew, sequencing came next, via Native Instruments’ Maschine software.
Hedonia’s stable of hardware swelled, too, with the Moog Sub Phatty and Prophet ‘08. “Then, when we moved into our house,” she says of herself and M’Olive, “we just kept growing and growing and growing with stuff that we had.” Which led to a breakthrough, when Hedonia began experimenting with modular synthesis — glomming onto it far more than guitar enthusiast M’Olive.
“You take off the outer layer, and you get to rebuild the skeleton of the sound. And it’s up to you. There are no presets. There are no built-in sequences. You have to make it all,” Hedonia explained to JazzTimes. “That’s when I started to get interested in actually making music.”
...
Hedonia’ will release her latest offering, Eclipse, later in 2025 via Paul and Marie’s Country Kitchen. Her most fleshed-out and rangey work to date, the album features collaborations with vocalists Delia Liederschuh, Casey Desmond (featured on the first season of The Voice),, and Black Kite’s Vicki Lynn Tippit.
Wednesday, July 8, 2026
Maryland, My Maryland
Tom Knighton at Bearing Arms, Maryland Court Upholds Gun Ban for Adults Under 21
How many actual rights do we have preserved in the Constitution that have an age limit? Voting, of course, does, but what else? Even the 21st Amendment, which repealed Prohibition, didn't include an age limit on who could drink. Then again, it didn't actually say drinking was a right, either. And yet, while we acknowledge adulthood at 18, and people can register to vote then, some states have decided that despite someone otherwise having the totality of their rights when they reach the age of majority, they can't have guns because...well, because.
One of those is Maryland, and the fight to overturn that law just got a setback. The Appellate Court of Maryland upheld last week the state’s ban on firearm possession by people aged under 21 in the latest example of state courts grappling with a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that dramatically expanded gun rights.
On Thursday, the state’s intermediate appellate court found historical precedent for age-based restrictions on firearm ownership and ruled that Maryland’s permitting scheme was not invalidated in its entirety by the Supreme Court’s decision ending states’ discretion to limit firearm possession to people with a demonstrated need to carry. “Based on our review of this caselaw, we conclude that the burden that (the law) imposes on the Second Amendment right of 18-to-20-year-olds is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation,” wrote Appellate Judge Kathryn Graeff. She was joined by Judge Rosalyn Tang and Senior Judge Donald Beachley, who was specially assigned.
In doing so, the court allowed charges to proceed against Terrell Henry Fields, who was 20 in 2019 when he was arrested in Prince George’s County for gun and drug offenses. The opinion states that Fields did not have a permit and hadn’t shown that he ever applied for one. The drug charges were dropped, and for nearly three years, the case was put on hold “several times” for “various reasons,” including the coronavirus pandemic, the opinion stated.
One day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, Fields filed a motion to dismiss, arguing the ruling invalidated Maryland’s entire firearm permitting scheme. Of course, the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to Florida's age limit law, which is unfortunate as it would have had bearing on this particular matter.
But how did the state somehow make the case that such restrictions are part of the historic tradition of gun laws? The answer lies in the argument that the age of majority was considered 21 at the time of the nation's founding; thus, those who are under 21 were not intended to be part of "the people" in the Second Amendment.
That's kind of ridiculous, though, because despite that claim, I haven't been able to find any examples of age-based restrictions on the ownership or carrying of firearms from that time. If the age of majority was enough of a bar then, where are the laws illustrating that? It seems pretty clear that even if those under 21 were considered too young for certain things, the carrying of guns wasn't one of them.
So from 18-21 you are too immature to own guns or drink, but plenty old enough to vote for Democrats.
Flotsam and Jetsam - All Platner All the Time
At Twitchy, Ditching Democracy: Scott Jennings Reminds CNN Hosts Dems Picking Power Over People to Replace Platner, Totally Hitlarious: Chris Murphy Worries About Dem Party’s Credibility If Platner Isn’t Properly Replaced and Politico Correspondent Clarifies How Graham Platner Is Not ‘DSA-Backed.’ Hat Hair VIP's John Sexton sees Dems Propose a Platner Replacement...Wait, Never Mind. Wesley Yang @wesyang, "So yeah, about that DSA-endorsed candidate that folx want to replace Platner: "As Maine Senate President in a state senate caucus meeting several years ago, Troy Jackson in a heated disagreement struck a female colleague with a bottle he threw at her." Biff LaTourette @BiffLaTourette, "Democrats and their media cohorts have relied for decades on this tried and true technique since Hillary's laughable keep lying/stonewall strategy failed in the wake of l'affaire Lewinsky. They created a slogan that spawned a PAC, http://MoveOn.org. Both remain everyday tools of the Party's preference to pound the prevarications, however ineffective, until they must beg to "move on," with lame mea culpas.
PJM's Matt Margolis sees The Left Has a New Narrative About Graham Platner, and Scott Jennings Just Nuked It. "On CNN's Anderson Cooper 360°, Alyssa Farah Griffin claimed that "Democrats did not do their due diligence in vetting this man and now their path to the Senate looks significantly bleaker because they went all-in on this one." Seriously?" Scott Jennings @ScottJenningsKY, "Democrats fully vetted Graham Platner, happily signed off on his incredibly disturbing history to win a Senate seat, and are only pretending to be shocked now because they can no longer rationalize the hypocrisy." From Ace, The New York Times Knew All About Graham Platner's Rape Allegation But Deliberately Buried It. Update: North American Man-Boy Lincoln Association Grifter Rick Wilson Weighs In. Sunny @sunnyright, "MSNOW is attacking a media outlet for publishing corroborated rape allegations because it’s hurting a Democrat with a Nazi tattoo who has previously been accused of hurting women." Quote Tom Elliott @tomselliott "Morning Joe spends 5 minutes grilling Politico’s @adamwren for running a story on Platner’s ex accusing him of rape. “Given the very high standards Politico has before they write something like this and publish it, what aspects of this story brought it to the level of publishable?”" Matt Vespa, An MS Now Host Did Not Just Say *That* About the Rape Allegation Against Platner "What is the actual – is there evidence between her and him, evidence of a crime?" Hat Hair's Dave Strom sees More Narrative™ Shaping by The New York Times. John Ondrasik @johnondrasik, "The reason the @nytimes can practice gross journalist malpractice, like they did to Lyndsey, is because they know there will be no consequences, from their company, from their media peers, and from their subscribers. In fact, protecting Democrats is how you climb the ladder." Quote Lyndsey Fifield @lyndseyfifield "I actually understand why Democrat leaders didn't take our stories seriously when the Times reported them in June but are taking them seriously now. It was by design." Neeraja Deshpande @neerajadeshp, "Here's @jodikantor, one of the NYT journos who broke the Weinstein story, naturally, an avid early proponent of MeToo, even had a movie made about her and Megan Twohey breaking the story—here she is writing off @lyndseyfifield for essentially partisan reasons. How's this aged?" Quote Curtis Houck @CurtisHouck, "WATCH: New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor – who wrote many of the #MeToo stories – DEFENDS Graham Platner and DISMISSES the allegations against him by @LyndseyFifield and other ex-girlfriends because they were not “abuse” and women saying they just “did not like what” they saw." From Althouse, "While I’m assigning blame, I shouldn’t leave out myself. Last October, when stories about Platner’s tattoo and Reddit posts first broke...", ""... I went to Maine to write about him. I tried to convey what I saw: a campaign that was electrifying angry Maine voters. But I deeply regret that, impressed by Platner’s political charisma, I wrote that he was 'nothing like the edgelord caricature I encountered online.' If anything, he seems to be significantly worse...." Writes Michelle Goldberg, in "Lessons From the Graham Platner Disaster." Sensurround @ShamashAran, "I have now read this highlighted sentence seventeen times because I assumed I wan't actually reading what was written. Surely my eyes didn't actually read this. Maybe someone accidentally pasted in dialogue from "The Onion." back when it was funny. But no. She is saying that she delayed reporting a rape because she agreed with the accused, politically. This is one of those moments where, if your IQ is over 85, your brain quietly excuses itself from the room..."The "I'm a dirtbag" speech. They definitely have a template ready to go when needed.
— MAZE (@mazemoore) July 6, 2026
Who did it better? 🤣 pic.twitter.com/UfF97z2a5q
Mark Hemingway @Heminator, "What Republican has faced credible rape allegations? Because it’s not Trump or Kavanaugh." Quote Jill Filipovic @JillFilipovic, "The one good thing I can say about this entire Platner shitshow is that most Democrats are calling for him to drop out, which is not how Republicans have acted when their favored candidates have faced credible rape allegations. The parties are still different: Democrats see credible rape allegations as disqualifying; Republicans continue to have a nearly unlimited tolerance for abusing women. Call them "Dem HR lady politics" if you want, but I'm actually glad we haven't fully rejected them." PoIiMath @politicalmath, "Here are things that the Platner story has that the Kavanaugh allegations did not have: 1) proof of contact between the accuser and the accused 2) documented allegations from the accuser naming the accused to others *before* the accused rose to the national stage 3) multiple accusers with documented proof of contact and long-standing recognition of abuse Liberals who are saying "this is just like Kavanaugh" are just reminding everyone of how flimsy the Kavanaugh accusations were …" quote Sarcastic Cupcake @SarcasticCupcak, "Hilarious to see right wingers try to pump up this story that reads like Kavanaugh allegations." Ron Coleman @RonColeman, "I don't have the patience or the stomach to line up all the established rapey stuff associated with Democrats and large percentages of people from certain countries, but it is notable how obsessed they are in their messaging with accusing non-rapey people - and canines - with rape despite the lack of what earthlings regard as evidence and at a certain point you have to step back and ask yourself who are these people and what are they trying to do to both our society and the people in it?" Jonah Goldberg @JonahDispatch, "LOLOLOLOL. So because we don’t know about hypothetical rapey legislators we should forgive the ones we do know about." Quote Stephen King @StephenKing "Tell you what--if you knew the whole truth about everyone in the Senate and House of Reps, those chambers would be dead empty. Jesus said, "Let him without sin cast the first stone."" Logic is not a thing in horror stories. Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry @pegobry_en, "They told me if I supported Trump we’d end up with neo-Nazi rapists as Senate candidates, and they were right."
Rick Moran at PJM, Platner Is the Democrat Camel Whose Back Couldn't Be Broken, No Matter How Much Straw Was Piled On. Capt. Ed cites Politico: The Biggest Loser in PlatnerGate Is ... "In the blast radius from the sexual assault allegations against Graham Platner, few politicians are taking a harder hit than Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna." Twitchy, The Bulwark's Sarah Longwell Says the Quiet Part Out Loud About Democrats and Graham Platner The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline, "@SarahLongwell25 calls for Graham Platner to drop out: "I want to win. I want Democrats to win the Senate and to win the House…Platner is in an incredibly weak position to do that now, and I think as a moral matter, when someone is accused of rape, that's game over." Jim Geraghty @jimgeraghty, "Going forward, every reference to The Bulwark should state, "The Bulwark, who had a columnist who argued Graham Platner should be the Democratic nominee in 2028..."" PJM's Scott Pinsker, My Platner Prediction Just Came True. Here’s What’s Next — Including the Death of the Dems' Brand. Capt. Ed cites the WSJ: Dems May Have a Bigger Problem Than Platner and Dem Senate Disaster Intensifies. No, The Other One, Texas.
Insty at his substack sees Socialists prey on Americans’ apathy — even in places you’d never expect. Jeffrey A Tucker @jeffreytucker, "The great secret of the last hundred years is that Progressivism is an elitist, technocratic ideology crafted by academia. It has NO working-class foundations at all. This desperate search for a believable marionette is hopeless." Wilfred Reilly @wil_da_beast630, "Is the DSA running every single minority member they have for office? DSA is 89% white; their candidates look like the United Colors of Benneton." Quote DSA Watch @DSA_Watch, "Francesca Hong, leading Democratic Socialist in the Wisconsin governor’s race: “Police exist to uphold white supremacy.” Mike LaChance at LI sees the Liberal Media is Dishonestly Painting DSA Radicals as Gentle Reformers. "Over on MSNOW, contributor Molly Jong-Fast recently talked about how they want free child care. What’s so radical about that?" John Sexton thinks Sen. Murphy Has a Terrible New Idea. Just one? $25 per hour minimum wage. Paul MaCrae at Am Spec calls them The New Brownshirts? "Antisemitic rhetoric on the far left increasingly echoes the propaganda of Nazi Germany." Dave Strom, Democrats Have Gone Down the Antisemitism Rathole This Far. Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius, "I hear all the time about how Gen Z is turning socialist because they have no economic hope and how I just don’t understand that we need to do more socialist stuff so they’ll still vote for us. Well…. I’ve spent quite a bit of time as a Silicon Valley startup/VC lawyer, and there is no quicker way to turn a young leftist into a junior Milton Friedman than starting their own business. ..." VodkaPundit at PJM hears New Yorkers Are Already Mad at Mamdani, and He's Just Getting Started. Dmitri Bolt at TownHall, Socialists Say Zohran Mamdani Delivered Record-Low Murders in NYC. There's Just One Problem. "People forget that, despite Zohran Mamdani’s generally hostile stance toward law enforcement and his preference for a more social worker-oriented approach to reducing crime, he has spent almost none of his time in office focusing on crime and nearly all of his energy on affordability. As a result, New York City has retained NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who was appointed under Mayor Eric Adams and has presided over steadily declining murder rates since 2023. The city has also maintained its existing policing strategy, which has clearly proven effective." Kevin Downey at PJM says Release the Clowns! Desperate Dems Send in the Odd Squad, Hilarity Ensues.
Beege Welborn at Hat Hair, has Another Sad, Cautionary Tale of Failed Democratic Candidates - Andrew Gillum Ring a Bell? DC_Draino @DC_Draino, "People forget that Gov DeSantis beat this guy in 2018 by less than 0.5%. He would’ve been our Governor during Covid, kept us locked down, and the country would’ve never been the same. The reason he almost won was b/c deep blue Broward County kept “finding” votes weeks after the election. The vote fraud was stopped, DeSantis cleaned up our elections, and he won by almost 20% in 2022. It’s amazing what happens when election fraud is cleaned up." Quote Breanna Morello @BreannaMorello, "ARRESTED: Former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, who narrowly lost to Ron DeSantis in 2018, was arrested last week in Alabama on drug charges. at the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 07.07.26 (Afternoon Edition) Twitchy: “Florida Dodged A Bullet.” I&I has A Tale Of Two Governors, Newsom vs DeSantis. Leslie Eastman at LI notices Newsom-Backed Deal Transfers Iconic California Beach to Indigenous-Led Nonprofit, "The 136-acre property, encompassing Blues Beach and surrounding coastal bluffs, will be transferred to Kai Poma, an NGO representing 3 tribes," for a favor to be named later.
Hat Hair's Dave Strom observes Iran Has Struck Three Ships in Strait of Hormuz in Last 24 Hours but then John Sexton sees U.S. Resumes Strikes Against Iran. And at News Wax, US Revoking License That Authorized Iranian Oil Sales, Official Says. I think the MOU is pretty much a dead issue. The Victory Girls note Iran Throws a Funeral For Late Ayatollah, New Ayatollah No-Shows and Vijeta Uniyal at LI reports U.S. ‘Influencers’ Jackson Hinkle, Max Blumenthal Support Regime at Khamenei Funeral
Jackson Hinkle led the chants of “Down with the USA.” The Free Bacon, GOP Primary Voters Remain Deeply Supportive of Israel, Poll Finds "A Washington Free Beacon survey found that likely Republican primary voters favor a close U.S.-Israel relationship and military action against Iran."
Jackson Hinkle led the chants of “Down with the USA.” The Free Bacon, GOP Primary Voters Remain Deeply Supportive of Israel, Poll Finds "A Washington Free Beacon survey found that likely Republican primary voters favor a close U.S.-Israel relationship and military action against Iran."
Beege Welborn thinks it's a tad late, Well, Huh: MSM Suddenly Interested in Playing 'Where's Mitch-O?' Atop Da Hill, McConnell’s health emergency sparks questions on whether he will return to Senate. Dave Manney at PJM, If McConnell Is Gravely Ill, Kentucky Deserves Clarity. Rep. Jack Kimble @RepJackKimble, "I spoke to my old friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior Senator from Kentucky. He’s still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 45 minutes. He's so sharp. Just like always he let me do all of the talking. He's a great listener. After that we prayed silently for awhile and had a staring contest. Just like always, he beat me. I told him we want to see him back at work as soon as possible." Not a great endorsement. A corpse could do all of that. Scott Jennings @ScottJenningsKY, "I spoke to my old friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior Senator from Kentucky. He’s still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 20 minutes … about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the TR Presidential Library, and even a little bit of Senate history. I told him we want to see him back at work as soon as possible."
Teri Christoph at RedState sees Trump Kicks Off NATO Summit With F-35 Bombshell and a Reality Check for Europe. Sundance at CTH has President Trump Arrives in Ankara, Turkey for NATO Summit – Brilliant Videos, President Trump Holds a Bilateral Meeting with President Erdogan in Ankara, Turkey, CNN Suddenly Very Worried About Israel During Trump Visit to Turkey and Mark Carney and Volodymyr Zelenskyy Announce Creation of New Canadian Bank for NATO/Climate Money Laundering, with $900 Million Seed Money from Canadian Taxpayers. CNN whines OPEC is in a struggle for its survival. It could mean $40 oil. John Sexton like the fact that the Russian Shadow Fleet is in Flames
Beege Welborn in best Bugs Bunny voice, Of Course, You Realize This Means War: Marine Le Pen Cleared to Run for French President. Ace, French Court Lifts Ban on Le Pen Standing for Next Presidential -- But Slaps Her With House Arrest That Will Prevent Her from Campaiging Outside Her Home, NIGEL FARAGE RESIGNS HIS SEAT IN PARLIAMENT.
Jeff Charles at TownHall sees This Defense Attorney Thinks Charlie Kirk's Assassin Won't Go to Trial. "When asked whether Robinson’s team will choose to go to trial, he responded, “If they can avoid it, hell no.” He further stated that Robinson’s attorneys will “run to the nearest sporting goods store, they get the thickest knee pads, they fall to their knees in front of the prosecutors, and they beg them to take death off the table.”"
Matt Vespa sees the New Fed Report that Shows How Joe Biden's Illegal Alien Invasion Brutalized Our Economy. James Blair @JamesBlairUSA, "Democrat politicians cause virtually every problem you face, and they have no real solutions for anything. Aside from being woke, weak, and way too liberal, they are incompetent." Quote New York Post @nypost, "Biden's illegal immigration surge triggered 30% rise in home prices, $ 20% in rents, Fed paper finds https://trib.al/c3M9oC6." Jesse Kelly @JesseKellyDC, "Most of my friend circle has children ranging from late high school to recent college grad. All I hear are HORROR stories about the jobs market. Can’t get a call back. Can’t get an interview. The political elite in this country better be VERY careful with their language. Very." Quote Fugitive Caesar @ThomBrady5, "I was starting to get suspicious for a while because I keep hearing stories like this about smart college graduates with STEM degrees putting out 800-3,000 job applications, even to grocery stores, and not getting hired for low-paid entry-level jobs. x.com/cccfounder/sta…" Bill Marshal @aethelamerican, "It's the H1Bs and immigrants and we all know this. Whether talking inflated costs for housing, healthcare and schooling, or a brutal entry and mid level job market is because of them. And as far as I know, not a single 2028 candidate has committed to ending the H1B program." Ben Smith at RedState reports Trump Just Bought the ICE Facilities Newsom’s California Tried to Run Out of Town.
Amy Curtis at TownHall says The LGBTQ Movement Just Found Out How Islamic Nations Actually Feel About Them. CTV News @CTVNews, "Türkiye blocks American LGBTQ2S+ cruise from docking, citing ‘moral standards.’" The College Fix finds out a Professor gets NIH grant to study ‘rural gender diverse youth.’
And still more at the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 07.07.26 (Afternoon Edition)
The Wednesday Wetness
Record-breaking water temperatures likely contributed to a fish kill in the Potomac River near Seneca, where Maryland environmental officials recorded an extraordinary 94-degree water temperature following days of extreme heat across the region.If I'm reading the map right, this fish kill occurred up in the riverine Potomac, above Great Falls. I'm not sure I understand their argument about the summer turnover event. However, it was really hot for a few days there.
The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) confirmed the fish kill in a social media post, saying, “We’re aware of reports of a fish kill in the Potomac River near Seneca. Our biologist recorded water temperatures at a record 94°F. This can trigger a summer turnover event, when layered warm and cold water suddenly mix and oxygen-poor water rises to the surface, stressing fish.”
Although the fish kill occurred in Montgomery County, the Potomac River flows south along the borders of Charles and St. Mary’s counties before emptying into the Chesapeake Bay, making the conditions noteworthy for residents, anglers and boaters throughout Southern Maryland.
The fish kill follows several days of dangerous heat across Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic. Air temperatures climbed into the upper 90s and low 100s across much of the state, with parts of Montgomery County reaching about 100 degrees and nearby Washington, D.C., reaching 102 degrees during the recent heat wave.
...
State officials have not announced how many fish were affected or identified the species involved.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)