Flotsam and Jetsam - China Offers to Take "Nuclear Dust"

Not a lot of new survived the Memorial Day weekend, thankfully. Hat Hair's Capt. Ed reports from China: We'd Be Happy to Facilitate Transfer of Iran's Uranium, Thanks For Asking. It could work, they have enough of their own, but can we trust them? Sundance reports  on President Trump Updates on Current Status of Negotiations With Iran and Desire to Bring all Nations into the Abraham Accords. Good luck with that. At Althouse, "It will be a Document respected like no other that has ever been signed, anywhere in the World. Its level of Importance and Prestige will be unparalleled!" "Writes Trump, just now on Truth Social. He's "mandatorily requesting."" AG @AGHamilton29, "I hope people understand what’s happening because it’s been the same story over and over again. The Islamic Republic and their allies leak their preferred details as if they are agreed to western sources. Then when U.S. refuses to agree to those absurd terms and insists we stick to the deal that had already been under discussion, they claim the U.S. is backing out of the deal. Then they blame America or Israeli influence for the lack of a deal instead of The Islamic Republic making unreasonable demands for a settlement after they lost the military fight and are facing an economic crisis. We saw the same thing with Gaza repeatedly." Quote Iran International English @IranIntl_En, "US President Donald Trump is backing away from the deal with Iran, likely under extreme internal pressure, an Al Jazeera reporter said on X citing two sources." Breitbart reports U.S. Launches Fresh Strikes on Iran Hitting Missile Sites, Minelaying Vessels, just a reminder.

Sundance has a reminder President Trump Reminds Texas to Vote for Ken Paxton in Tomorrow Senate Republican Primary. He's not shy about expressing his druthers.  At Victory Girls, John Cornyn V. Ken Paxton – Today Is The Runoff. The Drunk Republican @DrunkRepub, "For the record I liked Massie for years. Tucker and others too. But my common sense forces me to be wary of those attempting to sabotage the mandate Trump was given in ‘24. Jumping ship at the very moment real change was possible stinks. Sorry, it just does."

At Althouse, "On Saturday night, May 23rd, a shooter once again sought to murder the President, his family, and his staff at the historic White House complex." ""We submit this urgent filing to update the Court on a second attempted assassination on the President within a single month. Last night, shortly after 6:00 p.m., an armed assassin approached a White House security checkpoint near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, professionally pulled a high caliber gun from a bag, and opened fire in the exact direction of the White House. Brave Secret Service officers returned fire. The gunman was killed...."  From the Notice of Supplemental Authority in Support of the Government’s Motion for an Indicative Ruling Dissolving the Court’s Injunction, filed yesterday in National Trust for Historic Preservation v. National Park Service, the case about the White House ballroom, posted by Trump at Truth Social this morning."

Beege Welborn at Hat Hair is outraged DNC's Memorial Day Honored Only American Military Members Trump Got Killed, deleted after being called on it. Also honored, George Floyd. Twitchy, F**k Right OFF': Joey Jones Tears Jacob Frey a NEW ONE for Using Memorial Day to Celebrate George Floyd, well, he was a Democrat casualty. 

Nick Ballasy at JTN reports Alberta will vote in the fall on whether to start legal process for separating from Canada. "The proposed question would ask: “Should Alberta remain a province of Canada or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?”" Ward Clark at RedState, Oil-Rich Alberta Now Preparing Vote on Leaving Canada.

Stacy McCain says of the Congo: ‘The Horror! The Horror!’ "Joseph Conrad famously used the Belgian Congo as the scene for Heart of Darkness, with the madman Kurtz dying of fever, his final words being: “The horror! The horror!” The situation has not much improved lately, as the State Department warns: “Do not travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) due to crime, civil unrest, and health. Some areas have increased risk due to armed conflict.” And then there’s the deadly ebola outbreak:"

Ian Miller @ianmSC, "They are absolutely furious that Spencer Pratt is demonstrating to millions of people the complete failure of progressive politics" Quote Stephen Rodrick @stephenrodrick, "I wrote this one...@RollingStone "Spencer Pratt is a quintessential American. His entire life has been fueled by an unfathomable level of self-confidence, despite a data set that suggests he may not be good at anything." But it's hard to argue he could be worse that Bass. Bob Hoge at RedState is Sleepless in Seattle: Residents Forced to Take Crimefighting Into Their Own Hands As Police Do Nothing. Cam at BA, New Orleans Carjackings Involved Teens on Electronic Monitoring. Blue cities. 

M.A. Rothman @MichaelARothman, "𝐎’𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐒𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐑 𝐎𝐍 𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐀 𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐅𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐃 𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊𝐒 — 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐆𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐄𝐃𝐒 𝟗𝟎 𝐏𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐒 Kevin O'Leary isn't taking the organized blitz against American energy and data-center projects lying down. After what he calls coordinated false attacks on his Utah data-center project, O'Leary says he brought in a data-science team to trace where the opposition content was coming from. His claim: it leads back to organized networks, activist groups, and funding trails — documented, he says, in IRS 990 filings and global IP data. He says he handed 𝟗𝟎 𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 to federal law enforcement and raised it with the White House. “𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴, 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴, 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥”, he wrote. His specific allegations are his own and still have to be proven out. But the backdrop isn't in dispute: there's a real, well-organized national campaign against data centers and energy buildout — by one tally, more than $𝟔𝟎 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 in projects stalled by coordinated opposition across dozens of states. The question he's forcing into the open is the right one: who's funding the outrage, and why? 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐠𝐧 — 𝐎’𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐝𝐬’ 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧." George Soros and China.

TownHall's Matt Vespa thinks he knows What Tulsi Gabbard Will Disclose Before She Leaves Her Post. I hope so. Sarah Anderson at PJM, sees Tulsi Gabbard and Others Go Above and Beyond for a Gold Star Widow SharrellAnne@SharrellAnne2, "This is probably a long shot, but if anybody happens to be in DC this weekend and plans on visiting Arlington, I would love to see a fresh photo of my husband’s grave in Section 60. SSG Alan W. Shaw Section 60, Grave 8451 B Co 1/12 Cav, 1st Cavalry Division November 10, 1975 ..." Tulsi Gabbard @TulsiGabbard, "It was an honor to visit your husband’s grave today on your behalf, and to pay my respects. It was wonderful to see the beautiful flowers representing many others who did the same. Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to those who made the ultimate sacrifice, and to the loved ones they left behind. Thank you for your service and sacrifice."

At Althouse, "The Trump administration’s $1.776 billion 'anti-weaponization' fund could be a boon for GOP senators targeted by a Biden-era investigation..." "... but some say they still do not want the taxpayer payout. Settlements for those the Justice Department deems were victims of 'lawfare and weaponization' under past administrations is the latest attempt to provide financial compensation to Republican senators whose phone records were tapped in the 'Arctic Frost' investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election...." The Washington Examiner reports."

Ryan King at NYPo reports Hasan Piker looks shaken on stream as feds probe Cuba trip — and Jasmine Crockett won’t stop gloating. "The subpoenas for communications and other relevant documents came in response to an online rumor that Piker and his comrades stayed at a US-sanctioned hotel in Havana. Participants in the trip have denied that rumor."

Sister Toldja at RedState notes a Reporter's Attempt to Get Medal of Honor Recipients to Bash America Doesn't Go According to Plan. Matt Vespa hears CBS News Host Tried Goading Two Medal of Honor Recipients Into Bashing America. Here's What Happened. Hat Hair cites NBC,  MOH: A Conversation With Lt. Colonel William Swenson.

Da College Fix, Cornell academics, activists remain irked by car incident involving university president. I'm irked they weren't expelled. 

M.A. Rothman @MichaelARothman, "𝐈𝐍 𝐀 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐄𝐓 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐒 𝐓𝐎𝐖𝐍, 𝐀 𝐑𝐀𝐁𝐁𝐈’𝐒 𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐈𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐁𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐉𝐄𝐖𝐈𝐒𝐇 Rabbi Nechemia Schusterman of Peabody, Massachusetts, wrote something this week that every American should sit with. Over the past few weeks, his family has been targeted again and again by strangers in passing cars. His brother-in-law, walking to synagogue, had “Heil Hitler” screamed at him...." Robby Starbuck @robbystarbuck, "That boy who didn’t kneel is more valuable than 10,000 who do kneel. Boys like him became men who made the modern world. Never kneel." Quote David J Harris Jr @DavidJHarrisJr, "BREAKING: A teacher brought her students on a school field trip to a mosque, where an imam taught the children about Islam, demonstrated how to wear burqas on the girls, and instructed the group to kneel for prayer. Only one young boy refused to kneel."

WomenAreReal @WomenAreReals, "Summary: For over two years, a man lingered naked in the women’s locker room at the Stonestown YMCA for hours at a time, up to six days a week, in front of women and young children. When women asked him to cover up, he became belligerent. Women tried everything: multiple meetings with management, a petition signed by more than 100 gym members, protests, and police reports. ... The YMCA responded by policing women." Quote Daily Mail @DailyMail, "YMCA in liberal city finally cracks down with new rules after trans woman exposed pre-op privates in female locker room https://trib.al/XIVNFti."

The Wombat has FMJRA 2.0: Technical Difficulties up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

Palm Sunday

with Darja Sobakinskaja:

Round Island Hurricane Palm

Mongabay, Last wild hurricane palm of its kind falls, marking extinction

The last wild Round Island hurricane palm, a rare tree native to Mauritius, snapped during a windstorm in mid-September, marking its extinction. Once thriving on a tiny island in the Indian Ocean, the tree had stood alone for decades as the only survivor of its kind.

Standing 9 meters (30 feet) tall, the Dictyosperma album var. conjugatum hurricane palm was known for its pale blue-tinted fronds and dense crown, and described as “breathtaking” by rare-palm enthusiasts.

“The tree was like the Eiffel Tower of Round Island. Anybody working on plants, reptiles, seabirds, or invertebrates would say, ‘We’ve got to go see it,’” Vikash Tatayah, conservation director of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, told Mongabay by phone.

It was native to the 1.7-square-kilometer (0.7-square-mile) Round Island, a strategic conservation area for Mauritius due to its high number of rare, endemic species, including reptiles and birds.

The foundation has been working to save the teetering tree, and other species, for decades in partnership with the Mauritian government and the U.K.-based Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. But years of decline ultimately took their toll.

The trees’ decline began in the 19th century when British colonizers brought in animals like rabbits and goats. The invasive species overran the island’s ecosystem, eroding the topsoil that helps hold palm trees in place. By 1994, only two trees were left; one fell during a cyclone later that year.

But you can buy seeds on line.

Linked at The Pirate's Cove in the weekly Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup and links. I forgot to send my Rule 5s to the Wombat this week, but he still posted Rule 5 Sunday: Cheerful Bikini anyway. 

Ebola in Texas?

Maybe, Texas Medical Professional: Migrants Quarantined with UNKNOWN Disease, 10-Year Old Girl Found With 20 Types of Semen In Her

A medical professional on the border in Texas told Big League Politics that the crisis is reaching fever pitch, with three individuals now quarantined at a privately-owned hospital in El Paso with an unknown disease. The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not even been able to identify the disease the three migrants have, as the military guards the quarantine area.

“There were some Congolese people caught crossing the border, it was suspected they had Ebola. In one facility there are three patients being held because they don’t know what they have. The CDC have been here to assess them. They are isolated, they only have certain specialists who can see them,” the medical professional tells Big League Politics.

“We’ve had an outbreak of mumps over here.”

“What scares me is what happens if someone comes over here with Ebola. We only need one person, and there’s a pandemic.”

Let's be optimistic. It might not be Ebola. It could by Lassa Fever, Marburg Fever or MERS.

As for the second part of the title, that makes me skeptical, but human indecency has unplumbed depths.

Sorry I Missed It!

Art Meets Fashion at Equatorial Guinea Bodypainting Festival 2019

The 4-day event is currently in the 3rd day and it is being  was held at the new Malabo Amusement Park in the capital Malabo and it was full of art, fashion, and style.

Models wore thought-provoking arts on their body, leaving all sensitive parts bare, as expected.

Some of the world’s top body-painting artists from USA, Canada, UK, India, Germany, among other countries.

Can't we have one in St. Leonard?

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Satellite Girl and FMJRA 2.0: Let’s Dance up and collecting hits.

Did Low CO2 Kill the African Megafauna?

According to a new paper in Science: Human ancestors not to blame for ancient mammal extinctions in Africa

New research disputes a long-held view that our earliest tool-bearing ancestors contributed to the demise of large mammals in Africa over the last several million years. Instead, the researchers argue that long-term environmental change drove the extinctions, mainly in the form of grassland expansion likely caused by falling atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels.
. . .
“Despite decades of literature asserting that early hominins impacted ancient African faunas, there have been few attempts to actually test this scenario or to explore alternatives,” Faith says. “We think our study is a major step towards understanding the depth of anthropogenic impacts on large mammal communities, and provides a convincing counter-argument to these long-held views about our early ancestors.”

To test for ancient hominin impacts, the researchers compiled a seven-million-year record of herbivore extinctions in eastern Africa, focusing on the very largest species, the so-called ‘megaherbivores’ (species over 2,000 lbs.) Though only five megaherbivores exist in Africa today, there was a much greater diversity in the past. For example, three-million-year-old ‘Lucy’ (Australopithecus afarensis) shared her woodland landscape with three giraffes, two rhinos, a hippo, and four elephant-like species at Hadar, Ethiopia.
When and why these species disappeared has long been a mystery for archaeologists and paleontologists, despite the evolution of tool-using and meat-eating hominins getting most of the blame.

“Our analyses show that there is a steady, long-term decline of megaherbivore diversity beginning around 4.6 million years ago. This extinction process kicks in over a million years before the very earliest evidence for human ancestors making tools or butchering animal carcasses and well before the appearance of any hominin species realistically capable of hunting them, like Homo erectus,” says Faith.

Faith and his team quantified long-term changes in eastern African megaherbivores using a dataset of more than 100 fossil assemblages spanning the last seven million years. The team also examined independent records of climatic and environmental trends and their effects, specifically global atmospheric CO2, stable carbon isotope records of vegetation structure, and stable carbon isotopes of eastern African fossil herbivore teeth, among others.

Their analysis reveals that over the last seven million years substantial megaherbivore extinctions occurred: 28 lineages became extinct, leading to the present-day communities lacking in large animals. These results highlight the great diversity of ancient megaherbivore communities, with many having far more megaherbivore species than exist today across Africa as a whole. Further analysis showed that the onset of the megaherbivore decline began roughly 4.6 million years ago, and that the rate of diversity decline did not change following the appearance of Homo erectus, a human ancestor often blamed for the extinctions. Rather, Faith’s team argues that climate is more likely culprit.

“The key factor in the Plio-Pleistocene megaherbivore decline seems to be the expansion of grasslands, which is likely related to a global drop in atmospheric CO2 over the last five million years,” says John Rowan, a postdoctoral scientist from University of Massachusetts Amherst. “Low CO2 levels favor tropical grasses over trees, and as a consequence savannas became less woody and more open through time. We know that many of the extinct megaherbivores fed on woody vegetation, so they seem to disappear alongside their food source.”

The loss of massive herbivores may also account for other extinctions that have also been attributed to ancient hominins. Some scientist suggest that competition with increasingly carnivorous species of Homo led to the demise of numerous carnivores over the last few million years. Faith and his team suggest an alternative.

“We know there are also major extinctions among African carnivores at this time and that some of them, like saber-tooth cats, may have specialized on very large prey, perhaps juvenile elephants” says Paul Koch. “It could be that some of these carnivores disappeared with their megaherbivore prey.”

“Looking at all of the potential drivers of the megaherbivore decline, our analyses suggest that changing climate and environment played the key role in Africa’s past extinctions,” said Faith. “It follows that in the search for ancient hominin impacts on ancient African ecosystems, we must focus our attention on the one species known to be capable of causing them – us, Homo sapiens, over the last 300,000 years.”

During the last ice age, atmospheric CO2 concentrations dipped so low as to seriously threaten the survival of many kinds of plants. SUV and coal powered power plants may save the planet.

Wombat-socho has Rule 5 Sunday: Happy Hanukkah! up on time and within budget.

You Know, There's a Fix for That

Singer Victoria Kimani Misses Having Sex

Musician Victoria Kimani has given a rare confession of how she misses having sex after abstaining for close to a year.

The American-born Kenyan singer who took the local music industry by storm five years ago, claims to have been living in celibacy since May 2017 after breaking up with Nigerian video producer Stanley Obiamalu.

In an Instagram account, the 'China Love' hit maker confessed how she has never gotten intimate with anybody since parting ways with Obiamalu, wondering if she is the problem or its the men who are scared of approaching her.

Victoria, once rumored to be having a secret affair with Kenyan international footballer Victor Wanyama, went on to state that she has been ready to indulge all this while but seemly no man is up for her goodies.

"Since may last year I have not had sex with one person. So who is fucking up? Is it me or dem niggas? Because I am ready, I have been ready to fuck. it feels like global warming" (She says spreading her legs wide open) . . .

We should all apologize for bringing civilization to Kenya.

Wombat-socho has "Late Night With Rule 5 Monday: Kaya Jones" ready for  your pleasure.

To Pose in Zanzibar

Rule 5 winner Genevieve Morton poses in Zanzibar:



If you haven't already, do yourself a favor and read John Brunner's "Stand on Zanzibar."

Shamelessly stolen from Theo's and American Power. Wombat-socho checks in from The Other McCain with "Rule 5 Sunday: Fast Cars & Fast Women."

Rule 5 Saturday - As If Africa Doesn't Have Enough Problems Already

Model Cara Delevingne Wants to Export ‘Gender Fluidity’ to Africa

Maybe I expect too much from models and actresses, but if Glamour or any other major women’s magazines is going to take the trouble of doing an extensive interviewwith someone like model Cara Delevingne, I think their subjects should have something interesting to say. Delevingne is instead like a white noise machine spouting a steady, boring stream of “sex-positive” liberal clichés.

While Glamour’s interviewer says Delevingne “isn’t afraid to get real,” the truth is that there is nothing even slightly original about this woman. Hailing from a prominent British family, she started her modeling career at the age of sixteen. In recent years she has also appeared in films such as Anna Karenina, Paper Towns, and Suicide Squad. This summer she’s starring in the sci-fi film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

I will leave it to others to judge her skills as an actor, but her thoughts on the rest of the world are silly, if not embarrassingly stupid. According to Glamour, “Her motto is ‘Embrace your weirdness.’ She’ll stick out her tongue or cross her eyes in photos—and share them.” How avant-garde! Why do I feel like I’m reliving some kind of after-school special about how odd kids can be cool too? When Delevingne and a friend found a box lying on the sidewalk, she poked two eye-holes in it and put it over her head. “The prank totally killed,” according to Glamour. Maybe you had to be there.

But the reason that Delevingne has been elevated from your typical hilarious celebrity into an icon is, of course, her views about feminism and sexuality. According to the magazine:

Delevingne is also hosting a girl-power docuseries with global sports brand Puma this summer, releasing a ­coming-of-age novel about teenhood this fall, and working with the U.N. Foundation’s Girl Up campaign, recently visiting Uganda to advocate for girls’ education. Shattering barriers? Embracing authenticity? Saying what she thinks? That’s the Delevingne Doctrine.

Move out of the way, James Monroe. This model has a doctrine.

Delevingne enjoys talking about how she is attracted to both men and women, her self-proclaimed “sexual fluidity.” When people get understandably confused and think she might be gay, she responds that she doesn’t think anyone should be “pigeonholed.” Says Delevingne, “A lot of the friends I have who are straight have such an old way of thinking.” Evidently, assuming that you’re gay or bisexual because you want to sleep with members of the same sex is so 2012.

Delevingne especially wants the young girls she works with to know that it’s okay for them to be gender fluid, too. “I know 13- and 15-year-old girls who are like, ‘I don’t know if I like a boy or a girl yet. I haven’t decided.’ And it’s like—[imagine] if I was able to comprehend [that at their age]. I am very happy how sexuality has become easier and freer to talk about, especially for kids.”, , ,

The enterprising exhibitionist Tyra Banks hosts GOODSTUFFs BLOGGING MAGAZINE (300th Issue) along with a colorful assortment of science and other stuff. Wombat-socho chimes in with "Rule 5 Sunday: (Snap-On) Tool Time" and "FMJRA 2.0: Mental Door." Also linked at Pirate's Cove in the weekly "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup" and links.