A View from the Beach

Or at least Hat Hair's John Sexton thinks so: The US Blockade is Working and Capt. Ed sings Starry, Starry Flight: Iran Threatens Ceasefire As Blockade Bites. Jeff Charles at TownHall believes Trump May Have Delivered a Crushing Blow to the Iranian Regime. From Ace, Iran: Blockade Successful; Trump Says War "Very Close" to Ending; Iranian Patriots Assassinate a Basij Commander in Tehran and "All sorts of news." Zineb Riboua @zriboua, "Arab media are portraying Trump's demand regarding Iran giving up the proxies as a Gulf demand. Interesting. The alignment of Israeli and Arab interests in this operation is getting greater every single day." Michael Lucci @Michael7ucci, "Peak Macron. France will lead a European coalition to secure the Strait of Hormuz...after the U.S. has secured the Strait of Hormuz. They won't invite the U.S. to the party. They will ask permission from Iran. For now, they will hold a Zoom meeting." Nick Arama at RedState hears Rubio Mediates Historic Talks Between Israel, Lebanon - With Good News and Hilarious Comment About France. Washington Free Beacon @FreeBeacon, "BEASTMODE: Israel's ambassador to the U.S. addresses France's exclusion from peace talks with Lebanon. "We'd like to keep the French as far away as possible from pretty much everything, but particularly when it comes to peace negotiations. They're not needed." Sana Ebrahimi Ledene @__Injaneb96, "A trend is starting among Persian accounts on X right now. Every time Europeans start crying about skyrocketing gas prices, and how America must help by opening the straight of Hormuz, Iranians hit them with the exact same condescending lines European politicians and influencers used during the Iran protests: "The reduction of gas prices in Europe must be brought about by the European people themselves, not by foreign agents."" Quote وصل الخطاب @vaslolkhatab, "Translated from Persian, The reduction of the euro's price in Europe must be brought about by the European people themselves, not by foreign agents." From Althouse, "Investors appear to be treating an end to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran as a foregone conclusion, as the S&P 500 closes above 7,000." The NYT reports" their worst fear. Northern Barbarian @xnoesbueno, "I'm not sure abandoning millions of women to a medieval theocracy, arming the Taliban with billions worth of US equipment, turning out the lights and leaving with bombs killing your people, and Afghans falling off the landing gear is the best example of ending a war, Mehdi Hence the ratings drop. Americans don't like a loser." Quote Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan "Joe Biden literally ended America’s longest war: Afghanistan. And got no credit for it. His poll ratings went down, not up. x.com/factpostnews/s…" Nioh Berg @NiohBerg, "Last night, notorious basiji commander Mohammad Shirmohammadian was stabbed 14 times and killed by masked individuals near Pardis, Tehran. Bear in mind: This is not how the Mossad operates. We are likely seeing the rise of Iranians taking action with their own hands."

Eric Boehm at Reason? says Trump's Illegal War in Iran Is Financed by Your Taxes. That's a Good Reason To Stop Paying Them. "If Congress will not deploy the power of the purse to restrain a lawless administration and an illegal war, then it falls to the public to do so." So, now Reason?, never a fan of Trump is going all sovereign citizen in opposition? I don't recommend not paying your taxes, and then arguing this out with the IRS. Matt Forney @mattforney, "Trump is the most libertarian president we've had in decades and libertarians will never forgive him for it." Quote Stephen Moore @StephenMoore, "President Trump is delivering what Washington never would: a smaller government. Nearly 300,000 fewer federal workers in just one year. More leaving than joining."

The Swalwell (and Gonzalez) sagas have about burned themselfve out, but the fallout in California's gubernatorial race is as yet to be determined. At Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog Two Slimeballs Depart Congress. the Victory Girls are happy about Tony Gonzales – Trash Finally Takes Itself Out. The Babylon Bee @TheBabylonBee, "With Swalwell Resigning, Just 534 Perverts Left In Congress " and After Devastating Sexual Assault Allegations, Swalwell Now Leading Democratic Presidential Candidate. MAZE @mazemoore, "2025. Chuck Todd discusses honesty and the superior morality of the Democrat party with Eric Swalwell. It mattered not to Chuck Todd or to about 100 other hosts that Eric Swalwell spent three years lying on national TV during the Russia collusion hoax." From Jewish World Review, Eric Swalwell Finds Out About Sudden 'Investigative Reporting'. Scott Pinsker at PJM wonders about The Mystery Sweeping D.C.: Who Executed the Political Hitjob That Destroyed Eric Swalwell?. Tom Steyer and Katie Porter are the two candidates who stand to gain most. One has the money, and the other the malicious nature. Matt Margolis at PJM, Nancy Pelosi Is Lying About Eric Swalwell. Here’s How We Know. Her lips were moving, but not her face. From Ace, Rapewell Update: His Top Democrat Donor Says He's No Longer a Democrat -- "Finito;" More Details About Rapewell's Jaunt on the Secret Sex Yacht. @instapundit @instapundit, "Cui Bono?" Quote Polymarket @Polymarket, "BREAKING: Billionaire Tom Steyer is now projected to win the California governor race after Swalwell’s dropout. 53% chance." Insurrection Barbie @DefiyantlyFree, "Dear California: Some fun facts about your candidate: Steyer pitches himself as an outsider willing to take on corporations, fight for affordability, and deliver results Sacramento politicians couldn’t. His campaign promises include breaking up utility monopolies, banning corporate PAC money, building affordable housing, and championing single-payer healthcare. He’s running as a billionaire who’ll take on billionaires. 1. Under his management, Farallon Capital Management invested $89.1 million in CoreCivic, a private prison company that operates several immigration detention centers in California. So when it was time for him to make money, he was all four private prison companies housing detention centers for ICE....:" and much more. Peter Girnus @gothburz, "I helped design the process a Congressional staffer has to follow after a member of Congress sexually harasses them.... Then Nancy Mace introduced H.Res. 1100. A resolution to release the Ethics Committee's sealed sexual misconduct records. Redacted. Victim names removed. Just the conclusions. Just the names of the members.The House voted 357 to 65. Not to release them. To bury them. To refer them back to the same Ethics Committee that sealed them in the first place..."

VodkaPundit at PJM thinks You'll Never Guess Who Just Slipped Kamala the Shiv, Huffpo, and Stephen Kruiser sees Dems Still Trying to Ditch Stage 5 Clinger Kamala Harris. Bad Hombre @Badhombre, "The last time a Democrat in Minnesota voted against Tim Walz, a Tim Walz appointee went to her house and shot her in the face." Quote Dustin Grage @GrageDustin "Only one Democrat needs to vote green in order to Impeach Tim Walz. The evidence is damning. But will anyone be brave enough?" Well, when you put it like that...

Cam at BA, Spanberger's Proposed Changes to 'Assault Firearm' Ban Could Make This Common Practice Illegal. Stephen Kruiser thinks Abigail Spanberger's Virginia Is a Creepy, Commie Place. Coddled Affluent Professional @feelsdesperate, "Property ownership gives people a share in the status quo and is a material interest that supports a critical baseline of reactionary political sentiment. ‘Cea Weaver-style’ housing policy is an insidious and purposeful effort to shift that political power to the state and make people dependent on the state either directly through more public housing OR indirectly through price controls that make housing ‘affordable.’ Either way this policy seeks to effectuate a huge power transfer from individuals (homeowners) to the state who ‘provides’ or ‘ensures’ housing. That’s why I generally think blue states are fine with no housing being built and real estate prices being out of control: the more desperate people are for housing and the more dependent they are on the state for housing, the more power government can arrogate. From CJ, Christopher F. Rufo, Jonathan Choe reports California Provides Sex-Change Procedures to Homeless Illegal Aliens. "In San Francisco, ideology rules." Hat Hair's Dave Strom thinks You Can't Make This Up: California Giving Homeless Illegal Aliens Sex Change Operations.

Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby, "Senator Fetterman slams members of the Democrat party for associating with Hasan Piker. “I mean, my God, you have many in my party, they're proud to do events with Hasan Piker. This is the individual that said that America deserved 9/11.” PoIiMath @politicalmath, "Why is Piker treated like an A-list celebrity crossed with a high minded intellectual?" Quote Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby, "BREAKING: Speaking at Yale Hasan Piker express his devastation over the fall of the USSR. “The fall of the USSR was one of the greatest catastrophes of the 20th century.” Marc Thiessen @marcthiessen, "But here’s the difference: You don’t see Fuentes invited to speak at Yale. The fact that so many of the left are willing to mainstream Piker is disgraceful." Quote Marc Thiessen @marcthiessen, "He’s the Nick Fuentes of the left. Fuentes loves Hitler and the Nazis, Piker loves Stalin and the Commies. x.com/eyakoby/status…"

From NRO, How the Left Convinced Americans That AI Data Centers Are the Root of All Evil.

Ace, Here We Go Again: Latest Leftwing Pope Attacks Trump for Sealing the Border, Attacking Islamic Occupation Forces in Iran, "As many have pointed out, this brave moral voice kept absolutely stumm when Iran was killing 30-45,000 of its own people. But now he finds his voice.And weirdly, he speaks with a vague Italian/Spanish accent, despite being an American citizen." Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius, "Well it looks like the Pope’s interference in American politics is still top of the news cycle, so I want to repeat something. The Democrat/Media Complex deliberately set this up so faithful Catholics would be forced to choose: Trump or your faith? That’s a false dichotomy. The Pope is speaking on politics, offering his opinion only and he is not speaking ex cathedra. You are not obligated to agree with the Pope in these matters where he speaks as an ordinary human. If you are a Catholic, you can still support Trump, and disagree with what the Pope is saying about the Iran War and American politics, and still remain true to your Catholic faith. Please do not fall for the either/or con job." Michael Sebastian @HonorAndDaring, "This is obviously the play, and when you understand that 65% of revenue from Catholic Charities comes from the government, you will understand why the US bishops want the Democrats back in power." Quote Trevor Tomesh @realDrTT, "Once again, this 60 minutes interview seems to me to be part of this concerted effort to drive conservative American catholics away from their evangelical brothers and sisters for the purpose of getting them to stay home for the midterms." wretchardthecat @wretchardthecat, "As I remarked elsewhere, while most politicians deal with Christianity by ignoring it or uttering pieties they neither mean nor understand the exchange between Pope Leo and Donald Trump forces the thoughtful reader to understand the Just War theory, which underpins the mainstream Christian approach to conflict. Inevitably it requires us to consider not only what Christians believe but what the Islamic equivalent to Just War -- the doctrine of Jihad -- actually teaches. In many ways the two are as different as chalk and cheese. In the first place Christianity is a nonstate religion while Islam aims to be a “universal religion and a universal state”. From this arises a host of differences." PoIiMath @politicalmath, "I think a left-wing appeal to Catholics would work better if the left stopped attacking nuns. https://christianpost.com/news/nuns-challenge-new-york-lgbt-law-they-say-violates-their-faith.html." Quote john milbank @johnmilbank3, "American Catholics should now track Left — it is merely obvious that the overall Catholic outlook is nearer the Left in general than the Right in general. And great genealogy from Murray to the idiotic Novak showing the US Cath cons were at root liberals."

Inevitable West @Inevitablewest, "BREAKING: Hungary's new PM has REJECTED the EU's migration pact: "We will still not join the pact. We will actually reinforce the border further to protect Hungary and broader Europe. We will find a way to stop the EU's daily fine." The globalists thought they'd won." Sarah Anderson at PJM hears Cuba's Preznit, When 'If We Need to Die, We'll Die' Doesn't Quite Mean What He Says It Does. Sundance hosts Barbara Boyd Recapping the Geopolitical Shifts and Domestic Obstruction Operations.

Sundance at CTH, The CIA Tried to Remove a Sitting President. "The evidence has been released. {GO DEEP} The long-debated issue is no longer a matter of opinion or question." TheLastRefuge @TheLastRefuge2, "The CIA tried to remove a sitting United States President. The evidence has been released. The issue is no longer a matter of opinion or debate. Now, watch the silence. The CIA tried to remove a President." Quote TheLastRefuge @TheLastRefuge2 "I see a lot of punditries missing the forest as they peer intently at the trees. You know the real reason CIA whistleblower Eric Ciaramella's name was never permitted to be mentioned?" Matt Vespa at TownHall, Here Are the Two People DNI Gabbard Issued Criminal Referrals for Concerning the Trump Impeachment Plot. Svetlana Lokhova @RealSLokhova, "DNI @TulsiGabbard makes a criminal referral to the DoJ against the Fake Ukraine Impeachment “whistleblower”, CIA operative Eric Ciaramella, and the former Inspector General of the Intelligence Community Michael Atkinson." Brianna Lyman at Da Fed thinks ‘The Timing Is Suspicious’: Intel IG Admitted Under Oath He Changed Whistleblower Rules For Anti-Trump Ukraine Op In 2019. USA Today whines DOJ seeks to throw out convictions against Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. “We don’t want a precedent that says that any physical confrontation between protesters and law enforcement means a crime akin to treason, such as seditious conspiracy.” They could never get a fair trial in Washington DC. Bonchie @bonchieredstate, "Bro literally received a pardon from Biden as he left office." Quote Adam Schiff @SenAdamSchiff "Step one in creating a culture of corruption and lawlessness? Promise impunity." Sauron's Eye whines DOJ fires at least 4 prosecutors involved in FACE Act cases during Biden administration. Ace adds Internal DOJ Review: Biden DOJ Weaponized the FACE Act to Prosecute Pro-Lifers and Give Them Unusually Long Prison Sentences, "The most corrupt, fascist administration in American history. They should all be in prison, or dangling from a rope."

Reuters is upset US prosecutors make surprise visit to Federal Reserve office.

Twitchy sees a Family Affair: College Soccer Player and Father Charged for Violent Attack on TPUSA Reporter.

Don Keith @RealDonKeith, "Wow! The BBC was not expecting a black man to start bashing immigration! A British man went viral after unloading on the show, declaring Britain is “full” and that mass immigration has destroyed the country. He slammed open borders, called out the crime spike, and said enough is enough — leaving the BBC hosts visibly shocked. Straight talk the mainstream media never wants to hear."

The College Fix thinks Georgetown must drop investigation into College Republicans’ anti-Muslim post: free speech group. From the Free Bacon, UNC Officials Accused of Not Protecting Students or Defending Free Speech After April Fools’ ICE Article, ‘Sorority Girl’ Skit Lead to Death Threats, Campus Uproar. "The university’s harsh response to the satirical article and video skit, which a top administrator called ‘completely unacceptable,’ may violate North Carolina state law." At Campus Reform Ohio Senate passes bill defining antisemitism on campuses. "The legislation specifies that criticism of Israel alone does not constitute anti-Semitism and affirms that it does not infringe upon First Amendment rights." At Da Wire, Elise Stefanik highlights The Moment The Ivy League Lost The Country. Steve McGuire @sfmcguire79, "Yale has issued a new report on declining public trust in higher education. The New York Times has a great headline summing it up: This is so refreshing. The first step is admitting the problem."

Rachel Premack @rrpre, "Bizarre situation brewing in LA public schools, as reported by WSJ today Teachers and parents say schools regularly run out of cleaning supplies and toilet paper But per-student spending rose from $11.7k to $29.3k since 2014 — about 5x the rate of inflation Notably…. the district doubled spending on outside vendors and digital tools over that time period The superintendent personally received "no-bid emergency authority" to close 72% of those contracts — and nearly 70% went over budget, per WSJ (District spokesperson says increased spending is due to virtual learning, tutoring and rising costs of special ed…)" Victory Girls, This Little Student Went to Class—This One Learned to Protest.

Northern Barbarian @xnoesbueno, "That guy is not aging well." Quote Terrence K. Williams @w_terrence "Trans activist, model & beauty influencer Dylan Mulvaney said: "No matter what my passport or the Trump administration says, I am a woman." " I will always be a woman"" Tyler O'Neil at Da Signal, Miss America Changes Eligibility Rules to Clarify Transgender Stance Following Florida AG Letter. “‘Female’ means a born female or born an intersex female individual (defined as one born with two X chromosomes with nonconforming genitalia) who has fully completed sex reassignment surgery via vaginoplasty with supporting medical documentation and records.”

Driscoll at Insty sees the GRAY LADY DIVES FOR FAINTING COUCH (AGAIN): NYT Melts Down Over Texas Rangers Statue Outside… Texas Rangers’ Stadium. "The New York Times and its sports section, The Athletic, has found its newest outrage target: a statue of a Texas Ranger outside Globe Life Field, home of the Texas Rangers. Seriously. That was the basis for Sam Blum’s 2,000-plus-word Wednesday piece about the Rangers installing the “One Riot, One Ranger” statue at the ballpark. Fellow Athletic writer Stephen J. Nesbitt piled on by calling it a “deeply controversial” statue and capping off his post with the always-serious journalistic flourish: “Yikes.” He also called Blum’s article “important work.” Yes, we need more sports journalists doing deep dives on… statues outside stadiums. These guys are really putting those journalism degrees to work.."

KPTV, Oregon tattoo artists push back on topical anesthetic ban

Tattoo artists across Oregon are voicing concerns after a recent rule clarification from the Oregon Health Authority says topical anesthetics cannot be used by any tattoo artist.

Sean Lanusse has been tattooing for nearly two decades, and sits on the committee that reviews curriculum for Oregon tattoo schools. During their last committee meeting, a memo was introduced with little warning. “They just kinda slid it out and said we are not going to talk about this because it does not pertain to this meeting but here is this information,” Lanusse said.

The practice clarification says under no circumstance can tattoo artists in Oregon apply topical anesthetics. The reasoning: it could constitute practicing medicine. Only one other state in the U.S. bans all topical anesthetics for tattoo purposes.

Lanusse said it’s common to see a numbing agent like Bactine in a tattoo studio. “I did use bactine for a while just to ease it up a little bit, help the client through the extra 20 mins or whatever but generally I’m not using those things,” Lanusse said. “I don’t think it’s as big of a problem for us as it is for cosmetic tattooing.”

At her private studio, Exuvium Studios Body Art & Beauty, Kaysie Anderson tattoos more than just permanent makeup. She does a lot of work with scar camouflaging and post-mastectomy areola reconstructing tattooing.“I have used numbing creams up until this clarification for nearly every single service I perform,” Anderson said. After the new rule came out, she sent a poll to her clients asking if they would be willing to get their tattoos without numbing cream. Since most of the tattoos Anderson applies are in very sensitive areas of the body, a vast majority of her clients said no. “This will 100% drive business out of our state, this will also drive licensees out of our state so the HLO will loose that revenue too,” Anderson said. “If I am not able to get clarification on how this is to be enforced or applied then I would have to relocate.”

Well then, I'm definitely not getting my next tattoo in Oregon.

A View from the Beach

Friday, April 17, 2026

Back From Fishing

Flotsam and Jetsam - Gone Fishin' DIY

Gone Fishin'

Fish Pic Friday - Faith Mary

Thursday, April 16, 2026

Flotsam and Jetsam - The Blockade is Working

Tattoo Thursday

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