Sunday, April 26, 2026

Palm Sunday

 With Georgiana Rosas:

An unconscious tree trimmer stranded high above a San Jose neighborhood was dramatically airlifted to safety Friday after suffering a medical emergency while working roughly 75 feet up a palm tree. Emergency crews rushed to the 2900 block of Sunburst Drive around 10 a.m., where the worker had become incapacitated while cutting the tree, according to the San Jose Fire Department.

Saturday, April 25, 2026

Maryland, My Maryland

 From the Balmer Sun, Gov. Wes Moore’s military record dispute intensifies as rival offers full release

A Republican challenger is escalating pressure on Maryland Gov. Wes Moore to release his full military record, turning a long-running question about transparency into a potential flashpoint in the 2026 governor’s race.

John Myrick, a Prince George’s County federal contracting consultant seeking the GOP nomination, told Spotlight on Maryland he will fully open his own military file to the public and is challenging Moore to do the same.

The move reframes an ongoing dispute over Moore’s lack of transparency into a direct political contrast. One Republican candidate is offering unrestricted access to his records, while the Democratic incumbent continues to withhold his records and has repeatedly refused to answer Spotlight’s questions about his military service.

“Maryland voters need to be informed about the candidates [who] are seeking offices at all levels,” Myrick said. “That’s the only way you can actually make sure you’re getting representation that actually meets your needs.”

Moore did not respond to Spotlight’s questions about whether he would release his records.
Questions about Moore’s military background have circulated for years, but have resurfaced in recent months as requests for his full record remain unresolved.

To date, 34 documents related to Moore’s military service have been obtained through Spotlight’s public records request filed with the Army.

The governor’s office has provided one additional document directly. But a broader request from Spotlight on Maryland — seeking full military, academic and athletic records — has been pending for months without resolution.

It's been pretty clear in the past that Moore has been less than open about his military career, at one point claiming a bronze star that was never actually awarded, and blaming it on confusion. 

Burnishing one accomplishments, and glossing over defects has long been a habit of politicians of all ilks (I dare say it probably goes back to ancient Egypt), but at some point it changes from mere shading of the truth to outright lying. 

The View from the Bubble

Just another update for the progress of recovery from the retinal detachment, vitrectomy and retinal reattachment surgery in my left eye (find links to the complete story here). As of Thursday, it's been 5 weeks since they implanted the bubble of C3F8 (perfluoropropane) in the eye to keep the retina in place as it reattached. It is expected to last about 6 weeks, and that timeline still seems plausible. The bubble still occupies about a quarter of the visual field in that eye when I look straight forward, a curved arc on the lower edge of vision, because the image formed on the retina is bassackwards to reality. When I look down, I can easily see around the whole bubble, and watch it shrink day by day. If I actually try, I can still use that as a low power microscope, seeing in focus about two inches from the eye. I hope that by next Saturday's report, I can report the bubble is gone, but that might be cutting it close. 

As far as my vision, I can see above the apparent bubble pretty well, and with both eyes I have decent binocular vision, depth perception and decent peripheral vision looking level. If I look too far up or down the bubble interferes. The view from that eye is not entirely straight; straight lines have some "wiggle" in them, and vertical and horizontal lines lean right. I call it my Fox News eye. Using both eyes diminishes the waver and lean, but does not entirely eliminate it. I'm still hoping that it's caused by the bubble, but, alas, I'm not convinced. However, the focus is surprisingly sharp, and it seems my old glasses prescription is still not all that far off.  I was about to get a new one two days before this whole thing started anyway. If I have any new complaint, it's that the bottom of the bubble is acting like a mirror, and casting annoying images on the retina, particularly in bright lights.

Anyway, I hope that this might be of some use someday to somebody beginning a similar journey. I have to say one of the failing of the medical system is for the doctors to slow down, and tell you what to expect, and what represents 

Flotsam and Jetsam - SPLC Still In the News

And not in a good way. The Lawplainer, Shipwreckedcrew DOJ Charges the "Southern Poverty Law Center" With Wire Fraud, False Statements, and Money Laundering Conspiracy splains "No one -- and certainly not a charity -- can obtain money or property from a third party through use of a material misrepresentation, or omission of a material fact -- that's called fraud." Steve Guest @SteveGuest, "Bombshell CBS News segment on the Southern Poverty Law Center indictment where the SPLC lied to donors, paid violent extremists millions, and “manufactured racism” for its own purposes “The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose.” Per Todd Blanche The Charlottesville rally leader attended “at the direction of SPLC” and made racist posts “under the supervision” of SPLC." Bari Weiss? From Twitchy, This Damning Segment on the SPLC Is Just 1 Reason Dems Are Melting Down About the Direction of CBS News. ET, House Panel Orders Southern Poverty Law Center to Turn Over Communications With Biden’s DOJ. NYPo, Prominent civil rights activist warns bombshell Southern Poverty Law Center indictment is just ‘tip of the iceberg’.

Tony Kinnett @TheTonus, "Kamala Harris falsely accusing Trump of coddling the Charlottesville white supremacist rally exactly one month after she was endorsed by the SPLC—the group that planned, organized, & paid for the Charlottesville white supremacist rally." Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog asks So When Are The “Punch A Nazi” Sorts Going To Punch SPLC Donors? Ace, Gavin McInnes: The Organizer of "United the (Fake) Right" Paid by the SPLC Would Not Stop Beggint Me to Attend His SPLC-Funded Anti-Right Op, "So it was all an op from the beginning: The guy paid by the SPLC -- who was also, get this, a CNN "reporter" (!!!) -- tried to draw in as many people on the right as possible so they would all get smeared as racists when the "They Will Not Replace Us!" tik-torch operatives made their surprise, but planned, appearance." Hat Hair's Dave Strom calls SPLC and Pravda: a Match Made in Heaven. Jack Posobiec @JackPosobiec, "Scott called it." Quote Scott Adams @ScottAdamsSays, Mar 8, 2023, "What are the odds those tiki torch carrying neo-Nazis from Charlottesville would only rally once? Feels like it was an American intel op against Trump. That’s my working assumption." At LI, Herr Professor Jacobson remembers SPLC False Flag Operations Reminiscent of Tactics Used Against Tea Party “I guarantee you it’s going on extensively, these false flag operations to portray Republicans and conservatives as racist, etc., etc. And it appears if what the Feds are saying is true that SPLC was part of that.”

Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius, "Each passing day reveals more and more and more how we have all been paying for our own demise, as our tax dollars have been funding NGOs peddling extra-constitutional policies and activities that the electorate had otherwise rejected. The SPLC is just the most prominent organization peddling hate-4-dollars. Their entire network of supported NGOs is in on it too. How did this happen? Did somebody have a good idea in a meeting decades ago: “Hey, let’s control America by moving our activities in an unaccountable way to unelected, non-governmental organizations, but let’s still pay ourselves with tax dollars!” Or was this some sort of unspoken conspiracy between like minded individuals?" Dave Strom at Hat Hair says USAID Is Back in the News For All the Wrong Reasons. Rick de la Torre @vrk_rick, "The NGO funding machine is getting harder to ignore. USAID funneled $27 million through the Tides Center, with some of it going directly into the Southern Poverty Law Center. For years, the liberal left inside the federal government hijacked nonprofits as pass-through vehicles; a legal loophole to launder taxpayer dollars into partisan left-wing networks like SPLC. Tides operates as the perfect hub: it receives massive federal grants, buries the ultimate recipients behind multiple layers of 501(c)(3)s, and quietly re-grants the money to activist allies. The American people didn’t authorize this. It needs to end now." Quote Bad Hombre @Badhombre, "Incredible. USAID was funding the SPLC through an organization called the Tides Center, based in San Francisco. From 2016 through 2024, USAID granted $27 million to the Tides Network to “strengthen global civil society organizations, promote transparency, accountability, citizen engagement, and serve as fiscal agent for USAID’s Civil Society Innovation Initiative.” The Tides Center set up a fund through its Tides Foundation with that money for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Vote Your Voice” initiative. The executive director of the Tides Center is Ayesha Khanna. She was co-chair of Women for Obama in Atlanta, Georgia." Kyle Becker @kylenabecker, "The SPLC wasn't paying for the "infiltration" of "hate groups" (not including Antifa, by the way). It was supervising the posting of racist hate messages and helping with the transport of agitators who provoked riots. We all can read the grand jury indictment, which isn't based on opinion, but facts. BY THE WAY, since you are all going with this idiotic, fabricated narrative...." I want to see the receipts for the Tiki torches. Elon Musk @elonmusk, "The reality is that stoking hate was incredibly lucrative for the SPLC. That’s why they did it. Incentives explain outcomes." Quote The Redheaded libertarian @TRHLofficial, "White supremacy went up because the SPLC changed the definition and applied it to everybody. Supply and demand problem fixed. Fkn magicians. x.com/therabbithole/…" Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist @DeAngelisCorey, "The Southern Poverty Law Center paid the National Education Association hundreds of thousands of dollars." 

Trump announced plans to fix and clean up the Washington Monument Reflecting Pond for a fraction of the cost the Biden admin had planned, and it sent liberals into a tizzy, or a least deeper. Dave Manney at PJM, Trump Restores a Landmark and Saves Millions. "Trump chose an industrial-grade swimming pool surface in American flag blue. The coating covers the aging granite bottom and seals the leaks. Trump announced the work on April 23 and set a clear timeline. The job costs around $1.5 million and should finish within weeks. Previous plans called for full granite replacement at roughly $301 million, stretching over many years." At Althouse, Well, plenty of people think something filthy, dirty, and disgusting looking is representative of the country. "Imagine an art installation titled "America." It wouldn't have sparkling clear water bubbling cheerfully now, would it? But I'm reading "Trump Says He’s Renovating ‘Filthy’ Reflecting Pool on the National Mall/The pool, which is more than 2,000 feet long, was the site of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 'I Have a Dream' speech and other events" (NYT) “It’s filthy, dirty — the water’s disgusting looking,” Mr. Trump recalled a friend telling him. “It’s not representative of the country.”

TownHall's Matt Vespa wants you to Guess Who Could Be Doing the Press Briefings With Karoline Leavitt on Maternity Leave. Disclose.tv @disclosetv, "JUST IN - White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt expects to have her second child next week. While on leave Vance, cabinet officials, and potentially Trump are expected to handle press briefings — Politico." She's great! Capt. Ed, Les Folies Impéchements: House Dems Think Third Time's the Charm? Rick Moran at PJM hears Democrats Already Looking to Impeach Trump on 'Day One' If They Take Control of Congress. Ace, No Surprise: Democrats Plot and Scheme to Impeach Trump on "Day One" If the American People Are Insane Enough to Give Them Control of Congress. Democrat communications shop and Eric Swalwell cover-up agency Axios..." "I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part! And we're just the guys to do it!" PJM's Stephen Kruiser says Trump's Flex on the Sinaloa Cartel Gives Me Third Term Vibes "I was kidding about the third term thing in the headline, but only barely. It's also great fun to trigger the lefty trolls with talk like that. Any mention of a Trump third term and the Dem hive mind experiences a collective soiling of the undergarments." Shipwreckedcrew likes A Bold Trump Plan To Use The Postal Service As A Firewall Against Fraudulent Mail-In Ballots. "Multiple Dem Party activist groups file suits in courts packed with Democrat appointed judges to try and stop plan to require "trackable" ballot envelopes by states that use mail-in voting." From News Wax, Justice Department Drops Criminal Probe of Fed Chair Powell, Likely Clearing Way for Warsh. Dave Strom says The Narrative™ Is Not Reality, Example #54702394572039. From the Free Bacon, New Navy Secretary, Hung Cao, 'Grabbed on to the American Dream' "'To our enemies … You can run but you’ll only die tired,' immigrant from Vietnam warns." Amy Curtis at TownHall notices The Official Democrat X Account Tried Deleting Its Tweet Attacking Hung Cao...but There Are Screenshots. Height shaming. I make fun of Pete's height all the time. At Shooting News Week, Final Rule Drives a Stake Through Anti-Gun Left’s De-Banking Strategy. RC Policy (RC's proliferate like weeds) asserts America Can’t Afford the Jones Act Anymore. The Jones Act mandates that cargo between US ports must be carried on US flagged vessels, of which there aren't enough.

Capt. Ed at Hat Hair hears Hegseth: IRGC Reduced To 'Pirates With a Flag.' News Wax cites Hegseth: US 'Ironclad' Blockade on Iran 'Going Global'. Sister Toldja at RedState thinks Hegseth Puts on a Clinic After Tabloid Outlet TMZ Asks First-Ever Questions at Pentagon Briefing. TownHall's Dmitri Bolt hears Iran Activates Retired 30-Year-Old Super Tanker As They Run Out of Places to Store Oil. Shanaka Anslem Perera @shanaka86, "JUST IN: Iran just pulled a thirty-year-old empty supertanker out of retirement and began towing it toward Kharg Island. She is moving so slowly that a voyage that should take a day and a half is taking four days. Her name is NASHA. IMO 9079107. Built 1996. A two-million-barrel very large crude carrier that has been anchored empty off Kharg for years. TankerTrackers confirmed her reactivation yesterday. Gulf News, Iran International, and Fox News all picked it up within hours..." Wells go bad if pumping is not continued. Leslie Eastman at LI hears India Denies Ship Made Crypto Payments to Iran for Strait of Hormuz Passage.


Amy Curtis thinks It Sure Sounds Like Hakeem Jeffries Just Tried to Threaten the VA Supreme Court. Don't you dare overturn our gerrymander, even if the law is clear!

Hat Hair's Beege Welborn sees Ken Griffin Kinda Torqued About NYC's Commie 'Tax the Rich' Mayor Pointing Out His Crib, Dave Strom thinks Voters in New York Getting What They Voted for Good and Hard and Leftists Are Destroying Social Trust. RCM sees the US Awash In Moronic Economic Policies Crafted by the Overeducated. DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican, "I am going to keep repeating this until people understand this. Karen Bass was not only a Castro operative and Communist, but she got elevated to Vice Chair of National Endowment for Democracy, which is the center of soft power operations in the US government. She is not a "DEI mayor." She is extremely powerful at the global stage. She was actively involved in shaping foreign policy with the Obama administration, especially Africa. Her Ghana visit during the LA wildfires wasn't a vacation, it was part of a Biden delegate to greet Ghana's new President..." Dave Manney at PJM, Democrats Defend Non-English Truckers as Safety Questions Grow. Lindsay Datko @ldatko, "!! 50 Pages of Recommended Felony Charges Dismissed by DA-Under 2 Years Time! @FirstDAofCO." The Rabbit Hole @TheRabbitHole, "Democrats are the party of racism. Slavery — Democrats Jim Crow — Democrats Internment Camps — Democrats Affirmative Action — Democrats DEI — Democrats." zerohedge @zerohedge, "Ilhan Omar Accused Of Trying To Steer $1.4M To Nonprofit With Somali Restaurant For Address."

At Althouse, "Earlier this week, the Justice Department finalized a $1.25 million settlement to Trump’s 2016 campaign adviser Carter Page..." ""... to settle claims that he was illegally surveilled by federal authorities. Multiple courts had dismissed federal lawsuits that Page — who was never charged with a crime — filed against the government, saying the statute of limitations on his ability to make these claims had lapsed. Last month, the Justice Department reached a settlement with Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn for more than $1 million, asserting he had been the victim of a politicized prosecution...From "DOJ is paying out Trump allies, undermining former investigations/Since Trump’s return to the White House last year, the Justice Department has paid more than $8.5 million to resolve legal claims brought by allies and supporters"" Shipwreckedcrew, splains Democrats Blocking Confirmation Of Trump U.S. Attorney Nominees Is Clear Evidence They Are Obstructing A Duly Elected President's Ability To Execute His Duties. "There are 94 federal judicial districts, each with a U.S. Attorney, and the confirmation results after 14 months proves Democrats adopted partisan obstruction as their response to the election." Dmitri Bolt is happy, The Department of Justice Announces It's Bringing Back Death by Firing Squad in Capital Punishment Cases. Techno Fog documents Biden DOJ collusion with the Abortion lobby, "New report sheds light on the targeting of pro-life activists."

John Sexton, Appeals Court: Trump's Suspension of Asylum System is Unlawful. Sen. Eric Schmitt at Am Mind says The SCAM Act Would Restore Integrity to U.S. Citizenship. Eric Schmitt @Eric_Schmitt, "We must be unapologetic about this: denaturalization is a constitutional, long-established tool for stripping citizenship from people who should've never received it Citizenship is more than paperwork We should expand denaturalizations. It’s why I’ve filed the SCAM Act." Quote The New York Times @nytimes "Breaking News: The Justice Department wants to revoke the citizenship of hundreds of foreign-born Americans, part of a push to increase the pace of denaturalizations, according to a U.S. official." Ace, Oh Dear! NYT Cries That the DOJ Is Increasing the Rate of Denaturalizations of Dirty Terrorist and Piratical Foreigners Who Lied During Their Naturalization Process "We need every single terrorist plunderer Cultural Enricher the world will give us!!!"

Stacy McCain thinks The Ivy League Is Decadent and Depraved. "Have I exaggerated for the sake of brevity? Perhaps so, but the subtext of Moyn’s book-length argument (Gerontocracy in America: How the Old Are Hoarding Power and Wealth—and What to Do About It) is pretty clear — everything wrong in America is because of old people, and therefore we should adopt policies to inflict harm on these elderly enemies. If you’re 65 or older, you are analogous to a Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994 and Professor Moyn is Radio Hutu." From Campus Reform, New Education Dept rule could strip aid from low-return degrees. Brandon Dutcher @brandondutcher, "“State universities are public institutions that must reflect the values of the public,” Chris Rufo correctly points out. But as the headlines below suggest, that is currently not happening in one of the reddest states in America. Neurosurgeon speaks out against DEI in Oklahoma medical school OSU Writing Center seeks “antiracist” tutors who will “accept all Englishes”..." Stephen E. Sachs @StephenESachs, "Absolutely appalling statement by @UCLA_Law , which should have included the line “we will pursue academic discipline against the disruptive attendees, who have shown that they lack the character and fitness to be lawyers.” Gerhard Thielman at the Everyman Commentary, on Woke Mathematics in Education- Part 1. "While the last few years have witnessed growing "fatigue" regarding woke and DEI policies, they are still prominent fixtures in our society, especially (and unfortunately) in our STEM fields."

James Bacon at Bacon's Rebellion, Alleged: Scott Told VMI to Boot Board Members or Suffer State Funding Cuts. "Virginia’s House Speaker demanded the resignation or change of roles of two Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors (BOV) members or suffer budget consequences, allege sources with direct knowledge of the threat. Lt. Gen. David Furness’s continuance as superintendent is conditioned on compliance. The Cadet is investigating, has submitted formal questions, and is awaiting a response."

At CJ, Male Prisoners Are Abusing Incarcerated Women in Massachusetts. "The Department of Justice should investigate MCI–Framingham, where trans-identified male inmates threaten the safety of incarcerated women." Basil the Great @BasilTheGreat, "BBC have turned the comments off because everybody wants to know why a WHITE MAN raping a SIKH is rightfully life in prison Yet a MUSLIM raping a WHITE GIRL can get as little as FOUR YEARS." Quote BBC Breaking News @BBCBreaking, "Man who followed Sikh woman home and raped her in religiously aggravated attack sentenced to life."

Ace, Buzzfeed: "Secret" Signs (and Stuff We Just Imagined In Our SSRI-Drenched Pea-Brains) That a Woman Might be a Far Right Extremist "I think the most obvious indicators are that her hair is a natural color, that she doesn't have a 56-year-old male news editor's busted hairline from being high to the gills on SSRIs, and doesn't have more metal in her face than Pinhead -- excuse me, "The Hell Priest." But Buzzfeed asked its experts -- its underemployed ill-educated idiot readers, I mean -- to provide less subtle clues and here's what the Damaged Brain Trust came up with."

And there's still more at the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 04.24.26!

Rule 5 Saturday - Georgiana Rosas

This week it's Georgiana Rosas:
Giorgiana Rosas is a Venezuelan model, beauty pageant contestant, and marketing professional. She was named Miss Tourism Venezuela in 2016 and has since gained a significant social media following, with over 1.7 million followers on her Instagram account @giorgirosas.12

More recently, Giorgiana participated in the Miss Venezuela 2023 pageant, where she represented Anzoátegui and placed as the 1st Runner-Up.3 During this competition, she also won the titles of "Miss Extreme Beauty" and "Miss Figure".

In addition to her modeling career, Giorgiana has pursued higher education and a career in marketing. She is currently studying Computer Science at UC Berkeley and is also on a pre-med track.2 Professionally, she has worked as a Marketing Officer at Dragon Infosec Limited and as VP of Marketing at Swift Shopper Inc.

Giorgiana is also involved in charitable work, as indicated by her association with Fundación Luz y Verdad.2

"As an ambassador for Venezuela, she wished to be a pioneer for animal care and raise awareness for a cleaner environment."