The Real Palm Sunday

Go Fly a Kite!

A much nicer day at the beach today. Warmer, 55 with lighter winds. Say what is that?

A kite built to look like a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly! I didn't see who was flying it, it was just tied to a log, and flying by itself!

You can get one at Amazon for $23. Something to do on a windy day.

That'll Buff Out, No Problem

Nothing a little buffing compound won't fix

Via the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 04.03.20, with a new format and added Rule 5, CDR Salamander: The Law Of Gross Tonnage Applies

Via Joseph Trevithick at The Drive;

The incident occurred in the early hours of Mar. 30, 2020, but Columbia Cruise Services only released an official statement on Apr. 1. The company, which is headquartered in Germany, said the RCGS Resolute was drifting just over 13 miles off the coast of Isla La Tortuga, a Venezuelan island situated some 60 miles off the country's northern coast, when ANBV Naiguatá, also known by its hull number GC-23, approached it. The Venezuelan Navy ship ordered the cruise ship to follow it to Puerto Moreno on Isla De Margarita, located to the east, accusing it of violating the country's territorial waters.

Engineering matters, math is hard, and the law of gross tonnage always applies.

The 403-foot-long Resolute, which is flagged in Portugal, reportedly had a gross tonnage of around 8,445 tons at the time. The ship was laid down in September 1990 and completed in June 1991. Intended for Antarctic cruises, it has a reinforced ice-capable hull.
...
The Naiguatá, which is just over 262 feet long, is a Guaicamacuto class offshore patrol vessel and displaces around 1,720 tons with a full load.

The Naiguatá,

Good seamanship can be harder.

"While the Master was in contact with the head office [in Germany], gun shots were fired and, shortly thereafter, the navy vessel approached the starboard side at speed with an angle of 135° and purposely collided with the RCGS Resolute," the statement continued. "The navy vessel continued to ram the starboard bow in an apparent attempt to turn the ship’s head towards Venezuelan territorial waters."
Columbia Cruise Services does not say what kind of gun was fired or if it did any damage to the Resolute. The Naiguatá has a 76mm main gun in a turret forward of the main superstructure, as well as a pair of 20mm cannons and two .50 caliber machine guns. The crew would also have access to various small arms.
Whatever the case, the steel-hulled patrol ship suffered severe damage from repeatedly ramming the cruise ship, began to take on water, and ultimately sank. Columbia Cruise Services says Resolute remained in the area until it was clear its services were not required to help in the rescue of the 44 crew members. It then continued on, as planned, to the Port of Willemstad in Curaçao.

But that won't buff out.

BZ to the crew of the Resolute ... she's earned her name ... and seems no worse for the wear.

The interesting thing is that the Venezuelan government appears to be taking to high seas piracy to solve the economic woes brought on by socialism.

Russiagate Wheezes, Regains Strength

A fair amount; it must a lot of stuff being dropped on a Friday during a quarantine to keep it out of sight. First, from Ace, FISA Court Demands FBI Provide the Names of the FBI Agents Who Repeatedly Abused the System and Perpetrated Frauds Upon the Court Demands To Know Which FISA Applications Contained "Material Misstatements"

You know what "material mistatements" are, right? They're the predicate for a criminal prosecution.

 Much more from Sundance at CTH, Oh My, Interesting Ramifications – FISA Court Requires DOJ/FBI To Provide Names of Targets Within Corrupt Surveillance Applications…

If evidence obtained by execution of a fraudulently obtained warrant was used in the prosecution of any of those targets; there’s a possibility those cases will be reopened.

Considering the twenty nine applications from the OIG go back to 2015, there’s a lot of potential for some downstream consequences not only for those 29 applications, but also for all FBI FISA applications with a similar level of neglect.

In the issue of the Carter Page application the DOJ and FBI were already looking into how far the ripple effects carried. The FBI was already undertaking a ‘sequestration effort’ to identify the fruit of the poisonous tree; and the results are still unknown.

This order from Judge Boasberg essentially expands that type of review upon another 29 applications and demands the DOJ identify to the court who were the targets. The court can then, on their own, look and see if any of those U.S. persons were prosecuted in court.
This is a hot mess…. And it is far from over.

Honestly, I don't see the point. Every one of the FISA warrants examined had flaws. I suppose the court would like to know which ones are significant, and which ones are technical so they can examine any applications from the people who submitted the significant ones, but the point is the whole FISA process has been corrupted by the FBI taking short cuts, and the DOJ and FISA court overlooking them. Burn it all down and start over.

And who, exactly, was in charge of the FBI as these abuses developed? Margot Cleveland at Da Fed, Latest Inspector General Report Slams Comey’s FBI For Massive Failures To Document FISA Claims. No doubt out writing another ethics book. How not to . . . David Harsanyi at NR, The FISA Scandal Is about Corruption, Not ‘Sloppiness’ Embrace the healing power of "and."

You would think that this kind of potential abuse by the Justice Department would pique the interest of mainstream journalists. No such luck.
. . .
Apologists for the FBI will question the patriotism of those who are critical of potential domestic spying. They have plenty of fodder. We now know that FBI lawyers manufactured evidence to spy on a political campaign. We know that some of the FBI agents involved promised to “stop” the president. We know that top FBI leadership, the people who have been lecturing us about patriotism and loyalty, have lied. And not just James Comey and Andrew McCabe. Onetime CIA director John Brennan spied on the legislative branch and lied about it to the American people. Onetime director of national intelligence James Clapper spied on the American people through a domestic surveillance program and lied about it to Congress.

Jerry Dunleavy at WaEx,  John Durham investigation intensifies focus on John Brennan. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

From Matt Margolis at PJ Media,  more evidence that the Mueller investigation was a partisan hit job: Mueller Hid Evidence Exonerating Don Jr. Over Infamous Trump Tower Meeting

It turns out that the most interesting things about Mueller's investigation were not what was redacted from the report, but what wasn't included in the first place. According to investigative reporter John Solomon, Bob Mueller hid evidence exonerating Donald Trump Jr. over the infamous Trump Tower meeting, during which Democrats were convinced he had met with a Russian lawyer to discuss dirt on Hillary Clinton.

The most scintillating information Mueller’s team ascribed to [Russian translator Anatoli] Samochornov in the report was a tidbit suggesting a hint of impropriety: The translator admitted he was offered $90,000 by the Russians to pay his legal bills, if he supported the story of Moscow attorney Natalia Veselnitskya. He declined.
But recently released FBI memos show that Samochornov, a translator trusted by the State Department and other federal agencies, provided agents far more information than was quoted by Mueller, nearly all of it exculpatory to the president’s campaign and his eldest son.
Despite learning the translator's information on July 12, 2017, just a few days after the media reported on the Trump Tower meeting, the FBI would eventually suggest Donald Trump Jr. was lying and that the event could be seminal to Russian election collusion.
Samochornov’s eyewitness account entirely debunks the media’s narrative, the FBI memos show.
“Samochornov was not particularly fond of Donald Trump Jr., but stated Donald Trump Jr.’s account with Veselnitskya as portrayed in recent media report, was accurate,” according to the FBI 302 report on its interview of the translator. “Samachornov concurred with Donald Trump Jr.’s accounts of the meeting. He added ‘they’ were telling the truth.”

According to Donald Trump Jr., the short Trump Tower meeting was about the Magninsky Act, and how that affected adoption practices between the United States and Russia. That explanation was moked (sic) by the media and the Democrats at the time, and that story was a cover-up for a key piece of evidence of Russian collusion.

and at Just The News, Mueller’s hidden evidence: Translator exonerated Don Jr. in Trump Tower meeting.

And Trump pulls the trigger on Michael Atkinson, the Intelligence communities IG. Da Blaze, Trump fires key intelligence figure that sparked Ukraine probe, Dems are already calling it 'retribution'

President Donald Trump notified Congress on Friday evening that he was firing a key intelligence community figure that sparked the Ukraine probe, and Democrats rushed to call it unfair "retribution."

"This is to advise that I am exercising my power as President to remove from office the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, effective 30 days from today," Trump said in the letter.

Michael Atkinson served as the intelligence community's chief watchdog and was the first to notify Congress about the whistleblower complaint that led to the impeachment inquiry against the president.

The president said in the letter that he no longer had confidence in Atkinson and that he would be relieved of his duties in 30 days.

The NYT whines (via Hot Air) Trump To Fire Intelligence IG Who Had Key Role In Ukraine Complaint. I'm sure he's not really fired, just removed from the position. Is the coast defense of Wyoming intelligence position filled yet? Sundance, of course, has a lot to say, President Trump Removes Coup Plotter ICIG Michael Atkinson – Effective 30 Days From Today – DC Media Conscripts Go Bananas…

The necessary, albeit politically controversial, move comes about two months after President Trump assigned Ric Grenell to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; Grenell is ultimately the acting boss of the overall intelligence community. It is likely DNI Grenell provided some key insight into the sketchy background activity in/around Atkinson’s office, and the overall intelligence apparatus writ large.

Additionally, former congressman Mark Meadows is now President Trump’s Chief-of-Staff; and Meadows has been a critic of those within the intelligence apparatus who attempted a soft-coup twice: Once by special counsel (Russia investigation) Robert Mueller; and once by impeachment (Ukraine investigation) using CIA operative Eric Ciaramella and NSC operative Alexander Vindman.

Also, in the recent FISA review by the OIG the DOJ inspector general specifically identified issues with the “accuracy reviews” conducted by DOJ-NSD chief legal counsel. Who was that former DOJ-NSD chief legal counsel? That would be current ICIG Michael Atkinson…

Michael Atkinson is the person who changed the requirement that evidence be first hand to allowing hearsay evidence to allow himself to notify Congress (i.e. Adam Schiff) of Lt. Colonel Vindman's unhappiness with Trump's Ukraine phone call. If this be retribution, we need more.

Rule 5 Saturday - A Canukistan Cutie - Rachel McAdams

For no particular good reason, this week's Rule 5 winner is . . .

Rachel Anne McAdams (born November 17, 1978) is a Canadian actress. After graduating from a four-year theatre degree program at York University in 2001, she worked in Canadian television and film productions, such as the drama film Perfect Pie (2002), for which she received a Genie Award nomination, the comedy film My Name Is Tanino (2002), and the comedy series Slings and Arrows, for which she won a Gemini Award.

In 2002 she made her Hollywood film debut in the comedy The Hot Chick. McAdams rose to fame in 2004 with the comedy Mean Girls and the romantic drama The Notebook. In 2005, she starred in the romantic comedy Wedding Crashers, the psychological thriller Red Eye, and the comedy-drama The Family Stone. She was hailed by the media as Hollywood's new "it girl", and received a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Rising Star.

Rachel Anne McAdams was born in London, Ontario, the daughter of nurse Sandra (née Gale) and truck driver Lance McAdams. . . McAdams is of Scottish, English, Irish, and Welsh descent. Her maternal fifth great-grandfather, James Gray, was a Loyalist Ranger during the American Revolution and fled to Canada after the Battles of Saratoga. McAdams began figure skating when she was four years old, but turned down an opportunity to move to Toronto when she was nine years old for pair skating training. She competed in skating until the age of 18, winning regional awards. Skating would later become only a hobby. She has said that skating prepared her for physical acting, because it trained her to be "in tune" with her body.

I like her better as a brunette.

McAdams is an environmentalist. She ran an eco-friendly lifestyle website, GreenIsSexy.org, with two of her friends for five years from 2007 to 2011. Her house is powered by Bullfrog renewable energy. She travels around Toronto by bicycle and does not own a car, but drives when in Los Angeles because it is "a harder town to cycle in". She volunteered in Biloxi, Mississippi and Louisiana in fall of 2005, as part of the clean-up effort following Hurricane Katrina. McAdams sat on a TreeHugger/Live Earth judging panel in 2007. She appealed for donations during the Canada for Haiti telethon in 2010. She was involved in Matter of Trust's "hair boom" efforts following the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.  In 2011, McAdams supported Foodstock, a protest against a proposed limestone mega quarry in Melancthon, Ontario.  In 2013, she filmed two promotional videos for the Food & Water First Movement, aiming to preserve prime farmland and source water in Ontario, Canada. In 2014, she narrated the feature documentary Take Me To The River, which investigates what is being done to try to save iconic rivers.

Some minor NSFW from Tanino.